Bonus Chapter 27.1

Chapter 27: Gazing at the Meteor (2)

I climbed the stairs and stood next to Nicholas.

The middle-aged professor opened a chest of drawers at the back of the classroom and was looking for something with his teaching assistant.

Eyes of various colours gazed upon us curiously.

During class, the professor had preached to the students his attribute-superiority view and that the influence of attributes and their ranks was absolute, and Nicholas spoke out against the claim.

In response, the professor called Nicholas to the podium and then called me.

"······."

What am I doing here?

Based on the current circumstances, I think I'll be displaying my [Heaven] Attribute...

In web novels, in such instances, the end result would usually be a confrontation between professor and student with the student either winning or losing.

However, sparring was impossible in the current setting.

This was an indoor high school, and there were no barriers to protect spectators from blind magic or slashes, nor any priests to heal their injuries.

Eventually, the teaching assistant followed the professor in bringing a long, cylindrical object and set it down in front of Nicholas and me.

"These are a pair of 'elemental magic generating devices'! As the name suggests, they are devices that generate elemental magic in a pre-set amount. Originally, it was an auxiliary tool for new students who could not handle attributes, but it could be used in this situation now. Come on, both of you stand on either side of the device and hold onto the handles!"

We followed his instructions.

The professor continued his speech while operating the machine.

"Now, after exactly the same amount of elemental magic has been inputted inside each, they will collide with each other. Before we begin, both of you, please tell us your attribute and rank."

"I am a normal level [Wind] Attribute."

A low and subdued voice entered my ears.

Nicholas Bondrania.

The attribute of this noble prince happened to be of the common class.

Well, it was not something to be too shocked about.

The absolute majority of Awakeners acquired normal-level attributes, and only a very small number acquired continental-level attributes.

The epic level had rarely appeared in the history of mankind, and Mythical level was first even recorded with me and Hyerin.

That is why the summoned who had awakened all kinds of rare attributes were special, and this was why the imperial family wanted to embrace us with open arms in the empire.

"I am the [Heaven] Attribute. My grade is the Mythic-level."

From the podium, I could clearly see the students had become agitated by my answer.

The professor nodded his head as if he was satisfied with my answer.

"Are you both ready?"

"Yes."

"I'm ready."

"Then let's begin!"

When the button on the machine was pressed, magic drained from my right hand, like a vacuum cleaner sucking up dirt.

My magic power gradually condensed into a circle inside the device.

"Ugh."

An unblemished, pure sky-blue sphere materialized moments later.

It looked like the Uranus in my universe's solar system that could seen from pictures.

Looking at the other side, the wind-type mana had begun to gather as it swirled around in the form of a sphere too.

'Whirlwind...?'

That looked like a technique that the main character of a famous Japanese manga on Earth liked to use.

Eventually, the two magic spheres were completed.

Both were approximately the same size when viewed with the naked eye.

When the professor pressed the next button, the membrane separating the two halves of the cylinder disappeared and the two spheres moved toward each other.

While my sky blue sphere moved as though it was heavy and slowly through, the whirlwind sphere flew like it was shot from a cannon.

Nicholas's and my magic spheres got closer in the blink of an eye—

*Shhh*

Before they even touched each other, the wind blew out indiscriminately, and his magical sphere was completely destroyed.

"Oh... Oh oh!!"

Only my sky-blue sphere displayed its unchanging and unfettered presence, and the professor seemed to have liked it as he clapped his both hands over his mouth.

He looked like an immature child.

As his applause resonated throughout the classroom, other students began clapping their palms one by one.

But most of them didn't quite know what had just happened.

Even if there were freshmen who were already capable of mana condensation, there would be few who could channel attributes into it.

"The wind couldn't handle the sky."

After the excitement settled down to some extent, the professor explained with a smile on his face.

"The two spheres are composed of attributes of exactly the same size, magic power, and concentration. As you will learn later in class, the instant disappearance is solely due to attribute superiority. The higher the rank of the attribute, the more powerful will be the Awoken when they wield mana."

Under completely equal conditions, my attributes overpowered those of Nicholas.

And that was not all.

"Faster magic power increase and recovery speed, lower elemental fatigue, and higher mana efficiency. Even if you don't take into account the implied difference in talent, no one can deny the superiority of the benefits."

He didn't stop there.

"Would Jeon Ji-Hye of the [Death] Attribute and Choi Ji- Hoon of the [Sun] Attribute come up too?"

He brought up Epic and continental-level students.

Choi Ji-hoon appeared to be happy with the opportunity to be in the spotlight and quickly approached the professor.

Jihye walked slowly, rubbed her eyes and covered her yawn with her hand.

The professor would have chosen to scrutinise such an appearance for its disrespect, but it seemed he had already had an impression of Jihye in his head.

There was no way that the professor would dislike her since she had an epic attribute.

"Ugh."

Nicholas had to use his magic twice more against Jihye and Choi Jihoon.

And the result—

The wild winds vanished without a trace as soon as it touched the grey orb of Jihye's.

It was almost the exact same situation as against mine.

"I didn't expect this..."

A twinkle appeared in the professor's eyes.

Nicholas's whirlwind and Choi Ji-hoon's small sun made for a decent match.

The two had a fairly equal strength contest in the cylinder.

Still, the strong winds were just firewood that stoked the flames of his sphere.

The wind couldn't handle death and the sun.

"Do you understand now? The Awakened people of the continental level and above did not stand out in the long history for nothing."

There was a good idiom that described this reality.

Nangjungjichu: With a cone in your pocket, the cone tip will be exposed. [T/N: Metaphorically talented people will not be buried for a long time, i.e. can finally show their talent.]

Even if you left a talented person alone, a sharp come would one day pierce the pocket and reveal itself, so beings with outstanding talent had no choice but to be recognised by others.

His argument was persuasive.

Evidence had been given through experiments with precise devices, and the logic was reasonable based on the objective data.

I still did not know much about this world, but I wanted to pat the professor's back.

Of course, this was because his values were much more favourable to people like me.

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