Chapter 12.1

Chapter 12: The Desire To Monopolise (1)

"It's really amazing... This is amazing..."

It was early February when the snow slowly begins to stop falling

An old professor at the National Academy, who is about to retire soon, stroked his beard and admired the sight before him.

Every time he pulled his long beard out of an age-old habit, precious white strands would fall to the floor, but that was not his concern right now.

He stood on the podium of the mana forge, watching four students sitting on the floor meditating.

After having taught basic magic for decades, one day he received a proposal from the glorious imperial family.

The students would be four- men and women- who were soon to enter the academy.

If they were the sons of high-ranking nobles who had just awakened common attributes, he might still be thinking about delivering lectures to them.

However, the moment he received the list of the names of the students, he suppressed his desire to rush to the palace immediately and posted an acceptance letter.

He looked at the students sitting in a row, starting from the left.

'Her Highness, Princess Amer di Kairos.'

The princess once again proved the greatness of the imperial family by awakening the [Beauty] Attribute, which is a continental-level property.

She fidgeted as if the posture she was maintaining was uncomfortable after having meditated for a while now.

In her body, she had already accumulated magic power equivalent to that of a second-year academy student.

However—

'This kind of thought may be blasphemous, but...'

She was actually the worst of his four students.

The woman kneeling down on her knees beside Her Highness as if praying, while wearing a clean white dress—

'Seong Ah-yeong.'

Having obtained the epic level [Life] Attribute, she already possessed the level of magical power reminiscent of a 3rd-year academy student.

Due to her nature, her combat power is weak.

However, as far as the healing arts are concerned, there is no problem with her pursuing a future as a nun apprentice.

Professor Noh shifted his gaze to the woman who was sitting next to Seong Ah-yeong, holding a small flower pot with her legs outstretched before her and her eyes closed—

'Jeon Ji-hye.'

[Death], which is an epic-level attribute, has the opposite characteristics of Seong Ah-yeong's.

She is, in some ways, the best of the four.

This is because Jeon Ji-hye succeeded in comprehending her attribute before anyone else.

The flower in the pot, which had been full of life until an hour ago, was withered as if it had not been watered for a long time.

'Awakening the power that even upper-class academy students have difficulty doing in only one month... It's really such an amazing talent.'

"Ugh."

At that moment, Professor Noh looked at the man he was most concerned about among the four, as the flow of mana rippled and swayed beside Jeon Ji-hye.

'Jung Jihoo... This child is a monster.'

He is the possessor of the mythical [Heaven] Attribute.

As befits the rank of his attribute, his magical power has long since surpassed that of an academy student.

But what really surprised the old professor is his talent for the magical.

Individuals with the [Fire] Attribute are rewarded for using magic dealing with heat.

A person with the [Water] Attribute is buffed when using water-handling magic.

A person with the [Sun] Attribute is buffed only when using magic that deals with light and heat.

However, the [Heaven] Attribute has no such restrictions.

After teaching him magic for a month, the old professor realized—

Jung Jihoo's magical talent.

For Jeong Ji-hoo, all types of magic acquisition and expression are buffed.

One regrettable thing is that he didn't know what the power of the [Heaven] Attribute actually is.

Since it only ever appeared in legends, it has never been recorded in history, so it was still an unknown.

'Maybe… she might know.'

The woman favoured by the stars.

The 2nd Princess— Her Highness, Princess Soniel di Kairos.

Her eyes, which gaze into the essence of all things, may be able to see something.

Professor Noh thought that he should put in a word for what could be regarded as the best student in his life.

** *

After class, I and Jihye walked to the floor where each of our rooms was.

"You look very tired. Are you alright?"

"Ugh... Now that I'm able to use one Authority, I'm always like this during the daytime..."

The Authority: [Investigation (Death)].

It is an ability that drains its target's physical strength and kills it.

It exerts an effect similar to that of an advanced magic called 'Energy Drain'.

Currently, it can only be used on small grasses and cannot absorb the stolen health, but if developed to its full potential, it is a curse that will display terrifying abilities in the future.

With the two hands of little Jihye down by her side, I placed my right hand on her head and stroked her myself.

She is cute like a puppy.

I could feel the fatigue in her voice, which was quieter than usual.

The reason she is tired right now is not because of the classes, but because she hates how low the [Death] Attribute makes her feel at certain times of the day, and low she was feeling right now.

Attribute awakening is not simply a matter of acquiring a talent.

Attributes affect the soul of the Awoken.

The more skilfully one handles the attributes they awaken to, the more the Awakener's desires, goals, likes and dislikes change.

Jihye embraced the attribute more deeply than any of the four of us in the magic class.

As a result, she became a nocturnal person.

And that's not all—

"Are you still uncomfortable around Ah-young?"

"Yeah... I keep avoiding her without even realizing it."

The friendship between Ji-hye and Ah-yeong began to deteriorate.

It's not to the point where the two have ended their relationship, but the relationship between the two is becoming more and more distant.

This is because the attribute of Jihye has a sort of repulsive effect when near the attribute of Ahyeong.

She seems to keep feeling uncomfortable around Ah-yeong for no reason.

Perhaps, if Seong Ah-young develops her attributes well, she will one day become like Ji-hye.

Anyway, since the attribute test, we were able to achieve great achievements by listening to the professor's magic lectures for over a month.

According to the〈 Old Book 〉about the Hero of Light, which is kept in the temple library, the hero who was summoned to this world 300 years ago reached the level of a sword master in half a year after learning swordsmanship from the ground up.

This just displays the overwhelming talent of epic-class attributes.

Our current case is certainly very similar to that of the Hero of Light.

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