Chapter 9: The Angel Caught in a Test (6)

Episode 9: The Angel Caught in a Test (6)

While Soya was holding back tears and complaining about how there could be such an unreasonable test in the 21st century…

Leffrey felt the rising Angelic Power.

‘As expected, Soya is my Angelic Power supplier… I mean, the No. 1 hero seedling I need to protect.’

Soya, a girl as small as Leffrey (161cm) but with a much bigger personality and pride. She was proud of being a once-in-a-generation black magic genius, and she was stubborn, refusing to bow her head to the world’s gaze and powers that looked down on her.

Born into an ordinary family with a self-employed father and a stay-at-home mother, she held both guilt and resentment towards her parents who disowned her because they couldn’t afford the enormous cost of magic education.

Due to her remarkable personality,

naturally, she had no friends.

Considering all these backgrounds, it was highly likely that her future would be a continuous path of thorns. So Leffrey had to convert all those thorns into his Angelic Power.

‘A virtuous cycle, a win-win situation!’

[Staying by the side of a lonely girl is an angelic act!]

[You have gained Angelic Power!]

‘Wow, just by being by her side, my Angelic Power increases. As expected, Soya is my Angelic Power gold… I mean, the future hero I need to protect. If I raise Soya well, she’ll even defeat the demon king for me, right?’

With Soya, he would have plenty of Angelic Power. And Soya, stronger than in the future, would crush the demon king for him.

Leffrey was delighted with the sweet imagination.

‘That being said, I need to use this Angelic Power somehow…’

Leffrey’s current state was like a balloon. A balloon being constantly inflated with Angelic Power. He was a little worried that something might go wrong with his body.

He had accumulated so much Angelic Power that he could raise about 3 stats at once. And it seemed like there would still be some Angelic Power left over.

‘Just how much have I accumulated?’

The Angelic Power generated from Yumari’s misunderstanding, the Angelic Power generated from saving Soya, and the Angelic Power accumulated from other small good deeds…

He had accumulated so much Angelic Power that he could even aim for other stat upgrades.

[Enough Angelic Power to level up confirmed!]

[You can upgrade your Angelic Abilities by consuming Angelic Power.]

‘Upgrade Angelic Ability? Does that mean they can become even stronger than this?’

The Archangel martial arts allowed Leffrey, who couldn’t even fight properly, to stand up to an awakener thug, and the Healing of the Seraphim that Heals All Creation, which was superior to any professional healer’s healing skill. To think that such amazing skills were just the beginning.

How did successful heroes live?

Leffrey imagined that kind of life.

‘Looking out at the night view from a Gangnam apartment, eating out every day, and playing golf on weekends…? Well, maybe not golf, but anyway, going out and having fun…’ (Gangnam is a rich people’s district)

Hehehe-

Leffrey was radiating materialistic desires that weren’t befitting of an angel. To achieve that dream, he needed more Angelic Power, and therefore, he needed to build a closer relationship with Soya.

‘Okay, let’s raise stats. That will be more helpful to Soya.’

There haven’t been any problems because his Angelic Abilities weren’t weak yet. But there had been many times when his lack of stats caused problems.

‘When the water first poured down, if I had reacted even a little bit slower, I wouldn’t have been able to get to the surface. As expected, agility 5 is too low.’

But agility wasn’t the only problem.

‘If I had just 10 points of strength, I wouldn’t have gotten hurt breaking the barrier. 10 points in a stat is the dividing line between ordinary people and superhumans. At this point in time, people say it’s best to raise your strongest stat, but in the future, there were also superhumans who said that reaching 10 points in all stats first was the most important thing.’

The difference between 9 points and 10 points was much greater than the difference between 8 points and 9 points. That’s why many superhumans, lamenting the ‘nine-point barrier’, would consume unimaginably expensive elixirs and dedicate years to training just to raise their stats that were stuck at 9 points.

But Leffrey could shamelessly raise his stats just by accumulating Angelic Power.

‘Alright. Let’s invest 2 points in strength and 1 point in agility.’

With this, Leffrey’s stats became…

Strength: 10

Agility: 6

Mana: 12

Esper Ability: 5

Angelic Power: 22

Of course, his stats still weren’t high. But if he used his Angelic Abilities well by consuming the remaining Angelic Power, he could be seen as a somewhat troublesome opponent.

Like a pawn in a chess game.

Unlike other pieces with flashy stats, its specs were only good for buying time.

However, as in any chess game, ignoring pawns could lead to serious consequences.

“Um…”

Just as Leffrey was getting used to his increased strength, a hesitant voice came from behind him. Leffrey turned around.

‘Wow, he looks like… an angel.’

Soya was surprised by Leffrey’s appearance.

With zero experience with men, she could only fidget and pull down her wizard hat.

“What’s wrong? Do you still have an injury somewhere?”

“Ah, it was you who saved me…”

But her awkward demeanor quickly disappeared.

Soya exclaimed confidently,

“I’m Soya, the one who seeks the truth of black magic. You’ll never regret helping me. Because I’m going to become the greatest mage.” (Believe it. Lmao got reminded of naruto)

Hearing those words, Leffrey felt a bit sad. He knew what eventually happened to Soya in his past life.

Soya had always been a mage overflowing with pride. But while stopping a mistake made by a large guild on her own, she lost half of her mana circuits, and she also had her research achievements stolen by the magical families.

And the guilds and families who did such things waged an even more intense smear campaign against Soya to hide their sins.

She was a black mage, and her personality couldn’t be described as good.

She was estranged from her family, and she had no friends due to focusing on magic while struggling financially.

Although overflowing with pride, Soya was too young.

‘Damn it… all sorts of slander and false accusations against Soya were rampant. And…’

…Leffrey didn’t want to see that happen again.

“Of course you won’t believe it, but…”

“I believe you.”

“What?”

“I believe you’ll become the greatest mage ever.”

Soya was very flustered. This was because the usual mockery and disregard that followed when she introduced herself as Soya, who would become the greatest mage, were nowhere to be seen.

And what? He believed her words?

‘Really…?’

He said he believed her words.

No one had ever believed her words.

Not even Mom, Dad… no one…

…Right, this wasn’t important right now.

“Ahem, ah, so…”

“So?”

“To ‘repay the favor’ right now…”

Repaying the favor – Awakeners often had to enter dangerous places like dungeons or Gates. If they were isolated in such places, the rescuers would naturally have to risk their lives as well.

Therefore, in the world of Awakeners, there was a system called ‘repaying the favor’. A natural rule where you pay the price of your life to the person who saved it.

If it became known in the world that someone hadn’t repaid a favor even once, their credibility was as good as gone. That’s how important this rule was.

Therefore, this rule was quite strictly adhered to, and there were even separate rescue teams that specialized in rescuing isolated Awakeners. The largest rescue team was said to have net profits comparable to those of a large corporation.

“It’s okay.”

“Wait, what?”

“You don’t need to repay the favor. And you definitely don’t need to write any kind of certificate or deed.”

Just to receive a favor,

he didn’t want to distance himself from Soya.

And…

[Forgiving the debt of someone in need is an angelic act.]

[You have gained Angelic Power!]

Right now, while taking the exam,

Angelic Power was more important than money.

Leffrey hoped this would make him closer to Soya. But that hope didn’t come true.

“Don’t pity me.”

“I didn’t mean it like that…”

Soya pulled her hat down low, covering her eyes. She hated it when tears welled up like this.

“I’ll definitely repay this debt. Just wait.”

Leffrey watched Soya leave and

couldn’t help but sigh.

“This makes it seem like I did something wrong.”

*

*

*

*

After a few hours, the doors that the candidates had entered to escape the water opened again. The candidates who came out were all exhausted, and some even looked quite worse for wear. Moreover, judging by the number of people coming out, it seemed like many candidates had given up on the exam beyond those passages.

‘What on earth is on the other side of those passages?’

Leffrey decided not to think about what lay beyond those passages. Even in the documentary, it was vaguely glossed over with the phrase, “The candidates will regret entering this passage.”

Most of the surviving candidates were filled with resentment. Some teams had collapsed and were already snarling at each other, while the remaining teams barely maintained their formation, unable to look at each other.

Thus, less than half of the candidates who took the first test passed.

As the candidates were catching their breath,

knock knock- a man entered with a sound.

“Oh my, you’ve all been through a lot.”

It was the last professor in charge of this exam.

Professor Klein of Magical Studies.

He was tall like a beanpole with a matching delicate appearance. However, the golden monocle on his right eye and the ivory-carved staff spoke of his wealth.

“To anger our privileged candidates with a modified version of a past exam question. I truly can’t understand the thinking of those two professors.”

Hahaha- After a short laugh, Klein bowed deeply.

“Greetings, everyone. I am Professor Klein Porphyrogennetos, who will be overseeing the second test. My last name is strange, right? You don’t need to memorize it.”

Klein tried to elicit laughter, but no one laughed.

Embarrassed, he scratched his head and said,

“As I said before, I don’t want to get on your nerves with any oddball modified exams. Let’s keep things simple.”

Tap- His ivory staff was stuck into the marble floor of the hall.

“Hermit, reveal yourself.”

With those words, large cubes of various colors appeared. At first glance, they looked like single rooms big enough for one person to live in.

“Those of you who prepared for the entrance exam already know, right? It’s attribute endurance. From the white room where divine power is concentrated, to the blue room where ice magic is concentrated…”

Many candidates nodded.

Some even looked confident.

Attribute endurance literally meant entering a place where one attribute was concentrated to the extreme and aiming to endure for as long as possible.

Naturally, it was a test that favored candidates who had built up resistance to attributes. Soya muttered inaudibly,

“Why is there no room where dark magic is concentrated? Is that professor a black magic hater…?”

Soya was making unreasonable assumptions as usual.

At Pithos Academy, the ‘best private academy’, there had been an issue where they set an outrageous condition of passing if you could endure for 1 minute. But this was the Central Superhuman Academy, the best academy there is. The candidates expected that they would set the same 1-minute limit as Pithos.

“Hmm, how long would be good… right.”

Klein smiled and said,

“If you endure for 3 minutes, you pass. If you endure for 5 minutes, you get a recommendation letter. Let’s go with that.”

Murmur murmur-

The candidates looked at each other with bewildered expressions.

And Klein added,

“For your reference, no student has ever received a recommendation letter from me. I hope there will be one in this exam.”

Klein looked at the candidates and said,

“Then… who would like to go first?”

And as soon as he finished speaking, a candidate immediately raised their hand.

“I’ll go first.”