Chapter 19: Combat Simulator?

Another day in Hakono and Yohan is arriving at the front gate. He sees one of the triplets walking in, being greeted.

"Hello! u-uhm A-Arwen?" A girl called out.

"H-Hi Julia, It's A-Acia actually." Acia corrected the girl. The identical triplets would often create confusion for everyone at school when they were referring to them. They had a much easier time when they were in class due to their behaviors, where they sit and if they were the only triplet in their class.

"Hey Acia, how's it going!" Yohan greeted, waving behind. They talked, with a few more people joining in the conversation, before another triplet strolled in from the school gates.

"Hey Arwen, how's it been?" Yohan asked without hesitation.

"It's been fine with me how about you guys?" Arwen asked after which each of her fellow classmates briefly said positive responses. "Have you guys seen Ayne?" Arwen looked about.

"Well, I haven't, maybe she went to the gymnasium, she likes hanging around there." Yohan suggested.

"I'm still amazed how you can tell them apart so easily." A boy said.

"Well, like I've always said, I'm perceptive." Yohan said as he scratches his head lightly with his index finger. Yohan's five senses have become keener by the day, he could very well be an exceptional sensory ninja if he was in the Narutoverse, even without his sharingan.

It was the last day of school before summer holidays, 2nd term exams were finished and everyone would go to their homeroom to celebrate, play games, watch a movie or go to other classrooms to party. "What are you guys gonna watch in class?" "Everyone voted and it was decided to project 'The The Panthera Sovereign'" "Which one, the animated or the latest live action movie?" "Live action!" Everyone was discussing their last day activities as they entered their class.

The bell rang and the festivities got started, Yohan hoarded a bag full of crisps and pastries. He ate them as he watched episodes of 'Incarnation: The First Windbreaker' on the projector screen in his homeroom. He went to other classrooms to visit his friends after watching a few episodes. School ended at noon before they all had to depart.

A few days later Amber got back from the Academy to spend her holidays there. One day after a long session of sparring in the backyard, she told something extraordinary to Yohan.

"Advent had recently gotten a combat simulation system of sorts. They were able to simulate F-rank monsters to C-rank monsters, the damage you take will be converted to fatigue in a magic conversion field. Oh that reminds me, I heard that your entrance exam might involve the same combat simulator, where you will face other exam takers, battling it out till you are overwhelmed with fatigue. You will be able to display a greater portion of your potential there unlike previous years." Amber explained.

The combat exams from previous years didn't have these monsters and when facing your opponent, you would only need one decisive hit to land or for your opponent to yield, to limit the cases of permanent damage during examination. Those past exams could therefore be described as one 'game of toe tag'. (A/N: One person has to touch the other person's shoe with their shoe without it being touched, no relations to corpses in a morgue.)

With the combat system, one can easily see it's benefits. In fact, the 'Trivia Lyceum' were the first ones to install the system, this was due to their connections when providing able enchanter mages. While 'Trivia Lyceum' was the weakest with regards to combat, their enchanter mage courses were second to none.

With alumni's providing connections to certain research institutes and firms they were able to get access to the latest and greatest feat of magic engineering known as the 'Combat Simulator' which consisted of the 'Damage conversion field', which converted damage to fatigue to the limit where you can no longer stand after which you won't receive anymore damage (though it's not absolute and limitless damage negation), and 'Monster simulator' which uses a database collected from captured monsters.

As a result, combat course students from Trivia Lyceum have been climbing higher in the ladders of local tournaments and inter-city tournaments. So far they've had it for 3 years while Advent had just got it in operation as of early April. Magnus followed about 3 months earlier. With the introduction of the 'Combat Simulator' students have been wondering if the combat courses would see a slight change in it's curriculum and criteria.

"Wow! That's so cool! I'm so jealous you get to use the system!" Yohan was indeed envious, with that much he didn't have to worry hurting his friends as well as battling it out longer. However he knew his envy would not borne anything of use to him so he successfully struggled to place it at the back of his mind.

He dedicated at least an hour a day to training his body, while most of the day was either playing video games or watching tv programs with Stella. He would sometimes go over to the triplets house, with Stella, to go play there or in the nearest playground. Falnis still doesn't believe he is talking to a child despite the mature air around him which seemed to demand respect between equals from him.

=In a vault at a Cathedral in Glave=

A platoon of mages, out of formation, in Templar's armor patrolled a spacious underground area walled with lustrous steel. Suddenly the lights went off alarming the platoon. "[Slumber]" Then a low and soft voice spoke. Immediately about half of the mages fell to the floor, lying comatose. The remaining mages put their guard up and used fire or light magic to try and illuminate the room and advanced swiftly towards their fallen comrades. However, their visions were slowly enveloped with a blank canvas, seeing their fellow soldiers slowly being consumed by the darkness. This all happened in a matter of seconds.

Silence. Quiet enough to hear a pin drop. The darkness then spat out a jacketed man. "Well done men, with this the Lantern is ours." He strolled to the vault door and took out a scroll surrounded by a dark purplish cloak of mana, anyone near whether they were normal or mage could feel the sinister aura it produced. 'I felt it was a little gratuitous to use our most precious scrolls, but I can't fail. Besides, the pay off would set us up for life.' It was none other than Thomas who thought so. The scroll left his hand and floated before him after which a faint hemispherical dome, a magical field, became more visible. The scroll as if a bottomless hole, seemed to draw and swallow all the bright specks of mana coming from the field till there was none. 'With this the mechanisms won't alarm any other annoyances'

The man reached out his arm and swatted the air feeling no resistance and continued to open the vault. The metallic door swung open revealing a golden, ornate, cuboid handheld lantern which in turn illuminated the room, dispelling the darkness that once filled it. About 70 rough looking cutthroats in black garbs were revealed with pools of blood and Templar mage corpses at their feet.

'Our spies in 'Reverence' were right, the hero just left the last artifact with the church. It's real since it can dispel even our scrolls of enveloping darkness.' Thomas wasn't surprised. He took out a satchel and stuffed the lantern in it. "Mission accomplished, return men." Thomas instructed. He heard footsteps and told everyone to meld into the darkness and escape through a secret tunnel they dug a month ago, after which he sealed.

=In a secure room=

"Crap! What happened to the tracing mark?!" A weathered mage was alarmed. The lantern had a mark which allowed one to locate it, however it vanished. "Quick get to the vault!" He ordered. On their way they saw all the mages that were stationed at the entrance till the vault were lying on the floor dead. "How could this happen?"

It was later revealed that potent scrolls were used in silencing every room. "With that all three artifacts, the Sacred Saber, the Consecrated Chalice and the Luminous Lantern are gone!" It had been more than 200 years since the demons were driven back to their world, society became more secular, no longer placing any importance to religion and the artifacts, to the point of turning their backs to them and ignoring matters related to them completely. 'Hero' no longer became a title reserved for the figure of hope and destiny, but instead given to those with extraordinary combat prowess. "This is a disaster!"