Ch.8989. Characteristic Update

The process of moving to a new location was chaotic.

It couldn’t be helped. I wasn’t the only one heading to the training arena with the twins.

Everyone who had been watching from the sidelines moved as a group… With this many people moving at once, it would be stranger if it wasn’t noisy.

Since they were all exceptional individuals in their own right, there were no obstacles in their way, making it look almost like a military march.

And… it was only natural that more people would join during this process. A large group moving together tends to catch attention.

It didn’t take long for the murmuring to turn into a clamor.

“Keep an eye on the person in front of you, and don’t get too close.”

Alkine took it upon herself to direct traffic in preparation for any potential issues… but wait, instead of dispersing the crowd, she was actually attracting more people.

The sight of the Student Council President leading the procession was enough to draw others’ attention, accelerating the rate at which the crowd grew.

Eventually, unable to bear the expanding crowd, Celia broke away and followed at quite a distance behind us.

After walking for quite some time, we finally reached our destination.

The place I was dragged to was the second-year advanced class training arena, which was noticeably larger and sturdier than the first-year advanced class arena.

The crowd that had followed us immediately filed into the spectator seats, while the twins and I headed to the space designated for dueling.

Moving toward the center of the arena and looking up, I saw that the spectator seats were almost completely filled.

“Wow.”

The arena was originally built with dueling as its primary purpose.

As such, the spectator section wasn’t particularly spacious since it wasn’t the main focus, but considering how many people had followed us here…

It was only natural that it would be packed.

“…Brother, isn’t this getting too big?”

“I didn’t expect the Student Council President to go out of her way to gather people….”

Even the twins, who had brought me here, seemed quite bewildered, apparently not having anticipated such a large crowd.

But what could we do about it? The crowd had gathered, and we had to proceed with what we’d planned.

“I’m ready.”

“…Oh, that was quick.”

Since I couldn’t just brandish a fork this time, I had secretly taken out equipment from my inventory as soon as we arrived at the arena.

A sword and shield. The classic setup.

The twins also drew their weapons.

Mitein, the older one, had a longsword.

Latein, the younger one, had a large shield that he had been carrying on his back.

You might wonder why a mage would have a shield, but for magic users, protecting themselves is indeed the priority.

Of course, those unfamiliar with mana control would need auxiliary tools like wands or staffs, but Latein had no such need.

Celia? She just finds it more efficient to protect herself with magic than to carry a shield.

That’s why, unusually, sometimes mages end up in the front line.

With defensive magic and a shield, even a mage can become tougher than most front-line damage dealers.

See? Even Mitein is hiding behind Latein now.

…But the fact that they drew their equipment simultaneously meant…

“Come on, bring it!”

“Shouldn’t you have said that before hiding behind me?”

They intended to attack together?

Of course, this was better for me than facing them one by one, but from their perspective, didn’t it make them look weak?

“Don’t worry, junior. We’ll adjust based on the situation. We’ve thought this through.”

It’s not really my place to worry about the twins’ position.

Well, it didn’t matter either way. No matter how many came at me, what I could show was always limited.

With that in mind, I waited for them to attack… but something felt off.

“…What are you doing?”

The two showed no signs of moving.

Latein had deployed a defensive magic spell and was in a completely defensive stance behind his large shield, while Mitein, though holding his sword, seemed to have no intention of coming out from behind.

This behavior caused the spectators to start murmuring, but the twins remained motionless.

“Is this right?”

“Little brother, I told you I figured it out. Has anyone ever seen this guy directly attack and cause damage? There are even rumors going around that he couldn’t do anything in the recent exam.”

“We haven’t seen it ourselves, so we don’t know. You’re always making exaggerated guesses and acting smart.”

“It’s not acting, I am smart.”

I could hear their conversation due to the relatively close distance… while Latein didn’t seem to trust it much, from my perspective, it was a surprisingly accurate strategy.

What came from his mouth was an extremely effective approach against me specifically.

Evasion is the skill of avoiding attacks, and parrying is the skill of deflecting attacks. If the opponent doesn’t attack in the first place, these skills are useless.

Due to this fundamental insight and their resulting approach, even the techniques I might have been able to utilize became completely useless.

Guard Break? Unfortunately, it doesn’t work on magic, so I couldn’t break through Latein’s defensive magic.

What about putting the defensive magic into my inventory to disrupt it? I could end up caught in the explosion like last time, putting myself in danger.

The only offensive means I had was a pendant that dealt fixed damage… but even that was depleted and couldn’t be used.

‘If only I had items from the Imperial Palace’s treasure vault in my inventory, I could at least try to overpower them with equipment…’

Unfortunately, all I had in my inventory was a pile of training weapons.

‘This is frustrating.’

Honestly, it’s beyond surprising—it’s astonishing.

They had only seen me directly during the duel with Lias just earlier.

And there, I ended the situation with just two parries. There wasn’t much to see.

What they knew was based on a few rumors of uncertain validity and witnessing my two parries firsthand. That should have been all… yet they made this judgment?

It was an extreme judgment, but firmly believing in it and applying it was truly beyond intuition—it was in the realm of madness.

It was impressive enough to make me think this is what it takes to be a fan club president.

Of course, it seemed a bit too coincidental, but since they were right in the end, I couldn’t really say anything.

‘…But they’re really not doing anything.’

Even as I stood still, contemplating, the twins remained motionless in their unwavering stance.

It might be disappointing for the spectators, but once they took that approach, all I could do was stand still and face them in the same way.

And so, time continued to pass.

What should I do? I can’t charge in, and it’s awkward to forfeit.

Feeling embarrassed, I glanced up at the spectator seats and noticed Celia sitting right in front.

She was looking at me with an expression full of anticipation.

‘…What’s this?’

Some kind of thrill was transmitted to me from her gaze.

Tension… no, a strange heat closer to anticipation.

It somehow made confidence surge within me.

The growth of my abilities, which had been blocked, somehow felt possible now.

That’s when I felt it.

[You cannot confirm this.]

[You cannot confirm this.]

[You cannot confirm this.]

[You cannot confirm this.]

Suddenly, system windows began to frantically block my view.

I was too startled to notice at first, but these were the same windows that appeared when trying to open the Favorability System.

I realized this thanks to the system window that appeared right after.

[Your traits are affected by time due to the Favorability System.]

[Trait update in progress.]

[…]

[…]

[…]

[Irregular trait has been updated.]

[New! Irregular Patch Notes 1.1.2]

…Update?

There’s such a thing here?

After experiencing the impossible event of being transported into a game, questioning whether updates exist or not seemed meaningless, but I couldn’t help thinking about it.

Even if my abilities were directly taken from a game… in this place that had become reality, something like an update should have been impossible.

But my prediction was completely wrong.

The word “update” was clearly displayed right in front of me.

‘There’s so much content here.’

Quite a lot of information appeared at once, but thanks to the twins still focusing only on defense, I had plenty of time to read.

I slowly began to read the text that had appeared.

[Irregular Patch Notes 1.1.2]

[This is a special system that will be used when utilizing this feature. If you find any errors, please contact the development team leader.]

[Delay Removal]

[For smoother gameplay, we’ve removed pre and post-motion delays for certain actions.]

[Evasion (Additional Effect)]

[Some special effects related to evasion have been added as default settings.]

[Parrying (Additional Effect)]

[Some special effects related to parrying have been added as default settings.]

[Attack (Effect Change)]

[Originally, we planned to create new monster data according to stage progression, but due to optimization and code error issues, we’ve designed it to use existing monster data while changing the calculation formula applied to attacks to ensure smooth progression.]

After reading it all, I thought:

‘…Is this for real?’

It was already overpowered, and now it’s going even further?

Though I was surprised by this upgrade disguised as an update, I couldn’t help but smile.

Well… it might be a bit sudden, but good is good.

And now is the perfect situation to test these upgraded capabilities!

“Here he comes. According to my calculations, he shouldn’t be much of a threat, but stay alert just in case.”

“Stop beating around the bush when you’re not certain.”

Pretending to be tired of waiting, I started moving first as they intended, and the twins focused even more on defense.

Little did they know that the situation had already been reversed.