BXBX NOVEL Chapter 9: Manual
Leon, in contrast to his new Lead Apprentice, Brandon, who was proudly proclaiming his new status in the cafeteria, could barely control his anger towards the new Lead Apprentice.
Although the former Lead Apprentice had not been very nice, at least he was quite strong, having mastered three to four magical spells. He was not as strong as Fatal Shot, the worm controller, or Super Girl, but he was much stronger than most of the elementary-level Apprentices. Why would they swallow their pride silently while being relentlessly exploited by him?
On the other hand, everyone knew Brandon’s background. He was just a rookie and had only mastered ’Wind Blade’ and ’Tornado Shield.’ He had spent most of the last year hiding in the Mage Tower, which had made his combat skills very weak. If he had to fight against them, perhaps more than half of the Apprentices could defeat him in a one-on-one.
But, looking at the four ’friends’ around him, it was clear that this guy had a good understanding of their weaknesses and compensated by adding a few lackeys.
Just as Brandon was proudly giving his "inaugural speech," the wooden door of the cafeteria was brutally shaken by someone, banging furiously against the stone wall.
After that, a young man, who had his left eye covered with an eyepatch, entered the cafeteria with a grim expression on his face.
The inaugural speech of Lead Apprentice Brandon was abruptly interrupted. At the same time, whispers about "Fatal Shot" could be heard in every corner of the cafeteria.
The young man with the eyepatch was one of the three strongest Mage Apprentices, Fatal Shot.
As they were the strongest, each of them had a group of subordinates who always gathered around them. Therefore, the three had never dined in this cafeteria, as all their meals were brought directly to their quarters by their subordinates.
This is why all the Apprentices felt surprised when Fatal Shot suddenly arrived at the cafeteria.
Of course, Fatal Shot did not come here for a meal, but to look for someone.
Fatal Shot swept the entire cafeteria with his single eye, and each of the Apprentices lowered their heads instead of meeting his gaze. It was impossible to do anything else, as a powerful energy seemed to emanate from his eyes, suppressing anyone who dared to look him in the eye.
Seeing Fatal Shot begin to walk toward him, Leon felt his heart stop. He lowered his head even further.
Unfortunately for him, Fatal Shot’s legs came to a stop right in front of him.
"Are you Leon? Come with me!" Fatal Shot didn’t say much, but the little he did say was impossible to ignore. After saying this, he turned around and left, not caring about the reactions of others.
An ironic smile appeared on Leon’s face. He pushed his tray of food aside, stood up, and followed behind Fatal Shot.
Without turning his head, Leon felt the irritated gaze of the new Lead Apprentice, Brandon, burning a hole in the back of his head.
Leon had a rough idea of why this guy came for him. Therefore, after following Fatal Shot through several long dark corridors, he arrived at a certain wooden door, quite sure about what was happening.
This was Super Girl’s room. Waiting inside were the other two strongest Apprentices: the worm controller and Super Girl.
It was a stone room, almost as simple as Leon’s room, and it was decorated to the same level as Leon’s. There was a solid wooden bed, a desk, and a chair… nothing more.
Well, there was one more thing. In one corner of the room, there was a human-shaped practice target made entirely of metal. From the crisscrossed scars and marks on it, it might have been the most used piece of "furniture" in this room.
Additionally, the iconic steel emblem of Super Girl was hanging on the wall across the room.
Fatal Shot, the worm controller, and Super Girl did not have a harmonious relationship most of the time, but when something related to their personal interests happened, this small group could still work together to achieve all their goals.
As this was Super Girl’s room, it was clear she was the one in charge here.
When Leon, feeling he was in an embarrassing situation, stopped in the middle of the room, the person who attracted most of his attention was Super Girl, who had a muscular body resembling that of a barbarian. She stood with her arms crossed over her chest. Super Girl did not wear a soft, long fabric robe like most apprentices but instead wore a leather jacket and simple pants.
The leather jacket was stretched and looked like it was about to burst when her bulging muscles pushed against it. Her muscles looked like pieces of steel, making Leon feel a bit envious. To be honest, no matter how much Leon searched his memory, he swore he had never seen a woman with such a muscular body before.
"I heard you saw what happened this afternoon? Tell me everything you know! If anything you say is of value, we will reward you handsomely!" Super Girl’s voice was like her body, strong and powerful.
As for what Super Girl said, the worm controller, whose entire body was covered with a thick layer, made a motion as if he were shaking his head, while Fatal Shot, who had brought Leon here, said nothing.
...
Half an hour later, Leon returned to his own room.
After he closed the door, he impatiently pressed his back against the cold wooden door framed with iron, saying nothing out loud but speaking in his mind.
"Any results from your scan now? Quickly, show me all the data!"
"Beep!"
"Samples of living organisms completed."
"The results are listed below…"
After that, streams of information began to flow into his brain. It took a moment, but the information about the three strongest Apprentices started to take shape.
Once the BioChip activated, it lacked much in reference to information about Mages, as there were no comparative data. Therefore, the organization and categorization of Mages had not progressed.
In Leon’s brain, there was an enormous amount of information about magical spells, magical items, and conceptual descriptions of each, but he simply had not had the chance to witness and observe any current magical phenomena. As a result, the chip could not gather information about the magical things in the environment based on its current memory.
It was such an unfortunate situation.
However, today, with a close observation of the three strongest Apprentices, Leon undoubtedly acquired a lot of precious data. This would undoubtedly be of great benefit in defining his future development path.
Of course, if he could personally experience the abilities of an official Mage, it would result in obtaining much better data. Unfortunately, he feared that the scanning feature of his chip would be noticed if he targeted an official Mage. Therefore, Leon could only use his passive detection ability, which was the mode he had activated when Mage Anderson had suddenly appeared yesterday.
As for today, when the three strongest Apprentices were standing in front of him, he felt it was safe to scan them, and they did not possess very strong spirit energy manipulation skills, so they were leaking a lot of energy that the chip could scan and analyze. This was why Leon could use complete detection without fear and process all the leaked information.
As a result, he progressed in calculating the source of the Magic.
Evan [Fatal Shot]
Race: Human [?]
Condition: —
HP: —
Mage Apprentice [Advanced]
› Experience: —
Attributes:
› Strength: 9
› Agility: 7
› Physique: 11
› Spirit: 18
These were absolutely incredible numbers. If they hadn’t been within Leon’s expectations, he might have shouted out loud. Fatal Shot was indeed worthy of being called one of the three strongest Apprentices. With just these basic body statistics, he could easily crush Leon.
In a confrontation against Fatal Shot, Leon was weaker in strength, slower in speed, and not as physically strong. Even if both had mastered a spell, Fatal Shot would still have thousands of methods to kill Leon. Not to mention, that guy was much more powerful when using magical spells!
But the Spirit attribute of Fatal Shot was what surprised Leon the most. Having a Spirit of 18 meant he had incredibly strong spiritual senses. He could sense the faintest heartbeat within a range of 50 meters! With such a strong detection ability, the difficulty of launching a stealth attack on him would be immense.
However, the chip placed a question mark in the race field… It seemed that there were inhuman elements found in the energy he radiated. Perhaps this had something to do with the implanted eye?
Blake [Worm Controller]
Race: Human [?]
Condition: —
HP: —
Mage Apprentice [Advanced]
Experience: —
Attributes:
Strength: ?
Agility: ?
Physique: ?
Spirit: 19
Compared to Fatal Shot, it seemed that the Worm Controller was better at concealing his energy, as even the chip could not obtain his attributes from such a close distance. But his powerful Spirit of 19 points clearly could not be hidden; it was evident that, among the two, he was the one closest to becoming an official Mage.
However, it appeared he had modified his body to a high degree, reaching a level at which even the chip could not determine his race.
In summary, although he probably did not have the highest physical attributes, he was still one of the three strongest, as evidenced by the terrifying spells he had mastered and the modifications he had made to his body.
Super Girl
Race: Human [Barbarian]
Condition: —
HP: —
Mage Apprentice [Advanced]
Experience: —
Attributes:
Strength: 15
Agility: 8
Physique: 16
Spirit: 17
Looking at Super Girl’s attributes, a feeling of helplessness welled up from the bottom of Leon’s heart. 15 in Strength, 16 in Physique… Was this ’woman’ even human? With attributes like these, she might as well be no different from some demonic beasts of the swamp.
When comparing the strength of two fighters, if there was a difference of 5 points, the weaker side would be easily attacked. If the difference was 10, the weaker side would experience broken bones and crushed flesh every time they were hit. The Strength difference between Leon and Super Girl was shockingly 11 points.
This… This was ridiculous! Even if they both fought barehanded, would Leon be as fragile as glass in front of her? Not to mention that if she struck him in the face, he would probably have his skull crushed.
Naturally, all kinds of fighting scenes flashed through Leon’s mind, but in each scene, he would end up severely beaten or dead.
As for Physique, it simply placed a huge gap between them. Even if Super Girl stood there without moving and allowed Leon to attack her with Burning Hands for a few minutes, it still might not be enough to kill her.
Through the comparison of these basic data, once again Leon recognized his weakness. With just his own personal effort and under the effect of amplifying his innate attributes, the difference between him and these extraordinarily talented guys would simply continue to grow larger. He did not believe there was any way he could catch up to them on his own.
Therefore, if he truly wanted to proceed in this bizarre world, the only thing he could rely on was the BioChip within him.
Only after reflecting on these things did Leon look at the reward he obtained from the "three strongest."
With a flick of his hand, a thick book appeared in front of Leon.
Thanks to his great eloquence and a clear memory of his experience from the previous day, Leon described Bleia’s movements in detail. Undoubtedly, this left a better impression on the three of them. Only then did he receive this strange book of magical knowledge.
According to the rules of the Mage Tower, any exchange of internal knowledge was strictly prohibited. Exchanging any copied magical knowledge by Apprentices was also strictly forbidden. Anyone who violated these prohibitions would be punished by the master of the Tower. Therefore, Super Girl must have obtained this book from elsewhere; otherwise, she would not have simply given it to Leon.
Leon held his breath in impatience and then turned to the first page of the book.
’Golem Creation Manual’!
...
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