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News of Chronicle of the Fierce Tortoise Warriors spread quickly throughout the academy. Many students were already waiting outside Class Eight, eager to ask Illusionist Caelan for information.
In truth, entertainment in this world was pretty scarce. Traditional pastimes included opera performances, military chess and checkers, various dances, novels, and competitions involving archery, horsemanship, magic, and combat skills. The radio programs introduced by the First Generation Flame Emperor had led many people to develop listening habits. Besides free news stations from various countries, there were paid radio programs—some of which were quite explicit.
In the past, before the Illusion school was weakened, there'd been many Illusion performances. Special effects added to operas. In the years immediately after the Illusion school got nerfed, operas nearly vanished from history without Illusionist support. Fortunately, through the combined efforts of countless performance masters, the tradition was preserved.
Dorian of House Serpentcoil's aunt was a member of a famous opera troupe in the Moonwatch Empire, but Dorian had never been interested in opera as a kid. Instead, he was fascinated by his family's inherited Serpentcoil Staff technique. Currently, besides his academy studies, he spent an hour each day practicing the technique with his father.
Although the staff wasn't an uncommon weapon, there were few peak experts who wielded it. The ancestor who founded their house was said to have reached Eighth Circle at his peak. But like Illusionist Caelan's family, none of his descendants had distinguished themselves since. However, Dorian's talent was quite good—his highest affinity was six-star Water. Through diligent effort, he'd reached Third Circle after graduating from a mid-tier academy and successfully enrolled in Crimson Academy, one of the Empire's three top schools.
Recently, the academy had been buzzing about the illusion games created by the First Year Class Eight Illusionist. Dorian had heard of this Illusionist long ago. When he was very young, he'd overheard adults discussing him. They said a ten-star Illusion talent genius had appeared in the Empire. As a child, he'd been amazed. He himself, with only six-star talent, was already praised as a genius in his town. So how powerful must a ten-star talent be?
Later, after hearing it many times, he learned that Illusion talent was a joke. As time passed, he thought this "genius" of the Illusion school—rarely seen in a thousand years—would simply disappear from his world.
To his surprise, after the school year began, this "genius" would be at the same school. He'd even gone with his seatmate to Class Eight to see him. Aside from a miserable, resentful face, this Illusionist's strength was the lowest in the entire academy. Barely First Circle.
The pitiful "genius."
Students discussed it for a few days at the start of the school year, but only for a few days. After that, everyone returned to their normal routines—studying, training, and thinking about how to have fun.
A few days ago, after Dorian finished absorbing mana from the Water gathering array, he'd returned to the classroom and pulled out "Chronicles of the Rose Knight"—a well-known adult novel from this world. He was completely engrossed, quite aroused, when he was suddenly disturbed by a series of noises in the classroom. He tried several times but couldn't get back into it. Helpless, he had no choice but to close the book. After calming down, he got up and walked to the edge of the crowd to see what was happening.
The crowd was at the back of the classroom. A desk had been moved against the wall, books cleared. Two male students sat facing the wall, hands on the desktop, fingers moving rapidly. Dorian could see glowing icons under their fingers. Each person's left hand seemed to control direction, while the right hand controlled start, pause, attack, and jump. A runestone tablet sat on the table with a small mana crystal providing continuous power.
But that wasn't the key. The key was what the runestone projected onto the wall.
In Dorian's previous understanding, runestone tablets were generally used to engrave elemental magic. For example, his family had a runestone engraved with "Thunderstrike Phoenix"—a hybrid spell. By channeling mana, you could launch a fire bird wreathed in lightning at an enemy. Average power, but much faster than a normal fire bird. It could paralyze on impact. Very useful.
But Dorian had never seen a runestone like this.
Were those two things on the wall people? Looking closer, the one on the right seemed to be a woman—the sound was a girl's voice. So were those things legs? They must be legs.
Damn, so pale!
Although the images, weakened by the Weave, were very crude, you could still vaguely make out what they were. For students who'd never seen anything like it, the pixelated girl in revealing attire was quite impactful.
Yes, we're talking about Lux from Elemental Contra.
Many male students had already reported to Illusionist Caelan that they were starting to dream about her.
Such crude images naturally held no attraction for boys from noble families like Cassius or Victor—their homes had plenty of beautiful maids. But for Dorian, from an ordinary family, seeing it for the first time was pretty stimulating. Especially since he'd just been reading an adult novel. He could only slightly bend forward and continue watching from the side.
Through classmate discussions, Dorian learned this runestone was made by the ten-star Illusion user from Class Eight—Illusionist Caelan. He hadn't expected the guy to also have the ability to engrave runestones. Even less that he could use illusions to create such a... uh, game.
Like most male students, after seeing how to play, Dorian quickly developed great interest in this so-called illusion game. This was an unprecedented form of entertainment. He inquired and found the runestone only cost five silver marks. Compared to his family's Thunderstrike Phoenix, he couldn't believe how cheap it was.
Was it because illusions had no offensive capability?
Whatever. Dorian followed several classmates to Class Eight and bought the runestone called Elemental Contra. After trying it at home, he became completely engrossed. And his game talent was quite good—on the fourth day, he could already clear the easiest difficulty with five lives. Now he was challenging Normal.
Today, upon arriving at school, his seatmate Marcus leaned over. "Dorian, did you know that in Elemental Contra, the first two difficulties can be set to thirty lives using a special command?"
Dorian immediately perked up. "There's such a thing? How?"
Marcus handed him a slip of paper. Written on it: "On the character selection screen after choosing difficulty, press 'Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Jump, Attack, Jump, Attack, Start' in order. Then enter the game with thirty lives."
Dorian immediately copied the instructions. With this so-called "code" to get thirty lives, he felt he might actually be able to clear Normal difficulty tonight.
After class, on the way to the gathering array, a message spread among students: "Illusionist Caelan from Class Eight has released a promotional video for a new game."
Dorian had seen Caelan's other three games before. They were quite interesting, but he hadn't bought them because his family wasn't wealthy. He didn't have much pocket money each month, so he couldn't spend it carelessly. Although he hadn't bought them, he'd played his classmates' copies.
For some reason, he still had a strong impression of the mushroom-picking game. He wondered if there were really mushrooms in reality that made people grow bigger when eaten.
This was the first time Dorian had heard of game promotion. He was very curious. After absorbing enough Water mana, he and a group of classmates went to First Year Class Eight. Upon arriving, he found the school's students had already surrounded the classroom. The culprit behind this event—Illusionist Caelan—was currently placing a runestone tablet beneath the classroom's outer wall.
After channeling mana to activate it, relatively polished images immediately appeared on the wall. At the same time, a voiceover began:
"In the center of the continent, the Chaos Lands, a city-state called New York..."
As the images and narration explained, Dorian, like everyone else, gradually understood the game's plot. It was a story about five warriors cursed to become green-shelled tortoises, rebelling against an evil monarch.
For Dorian, who'd read countless books, the story was average. Regarding creatures like tortoises, he remembered reading a novel called "Overlord of Mountains and Rivers" once, where the protagonist's pet was an extremely powerful dragon-tortoise magical beast.
After the background introduction came live gameplay demonstration. First, the unique characteristics of each of the five tortoise warriors were shown.
At first, Dorian could see the gameplay mainly favored melee combat—unlike Elemental Contra's ranged spellcasting. This was very much to his liking. As a citizen of the Moonwatch Empire, a nation founded on martial skills, Dorian, like many classmates, primarily trained in combat techniques.
Finally, an illusion game about martial skills! He hoped it would be enjoyable. From the level of importance the creator was giving it—Illusionist Caelan had specifically made a promotion first—and from the demonstration footage, it should be good.
But when the demonstration of the fourth character appeared, Dorian couldn't stay calm.
A long staff. A finishing move called the Water element "Surging Flood Dragon Staff."
This Flood Dragon looked a bit like the serpent in his family's Serpentcoil Staff technique.
Could he possibly create such a technique in the future? If he could, would he be able to change his house name to Flooddragon?
He had to buy it. He absolutely had to buy this game!
Dorian secretly made up his mind.
When all the demonstration videos finished, everyone was clearly very interested in the new game. They surrounded Illusionist Caelan, asking questions. Dorian couldn't get close, so he could only stand on the periphery and listen.
Then he learned the game would go on sale tomorrow—the first day of this week's holiday. Besides the shop on Mare Street in Charger's Alley, Illusionist Caelan had also rented a large warehouse in the market at the north gate as a new storefront. Both stores would sell it, but future gameplay would focus on the new location.
The game's price: ten silver marks.
Not expensive. Not expensive at all, Dorian thought with certainty. Nobody around him said it was expensive. Many complained they couldn't buy it today to play today.
Dorian also wanted to play today, but buying tomorrow was fine too. After all, he only had a little over three silver marks left in his pocket money. He couldn't afford it now.
He'd go ask his father for some tonight, then his stepfather for a bit more.
Asking his mother would probably just get him scolded.
Plz give me Powerstones
Bonus chapter on every 300 Powerstones.