Chapter 12 - Coreless

…

System, what happened..?' On the way to his next lesson, Dante asked the system.

-

{Host has looked at an 'Anomaly' which is forbidden for lower-class creatures. Your soul thus paid the consequences. It disappeared.}

{While the system tried to 'recover' your soul, your body entered a strange state. It was being @&%#.}

{Access Denied: Authority level insufficient}

{The system has tried to recover as much as possible to bring you back to normal. This is already out of the agreement by the Council.}

{The system has lost contact to @&%#, the update has been forcefully canceled. The system has lost its other functions, except its already existing skills.}

{Another being is @%&#——-}

{Don't worry, Dante, you're alright :)}

-

The last line sent shivers down my spine. It felt as if something had taken control of the system. The smiley made things even worse.

As I started panicking, red runes appeared again in front of my eyes.

-

{You don't have to worry because the system is not all-powerful and omnipotent. It had to have a source of power to 'recover' your soul.}

'What kind of power?'

{Soul power}

'From where?'

{Who knows?}

'Did I do something while I was unconscious?'

{Who knows?}

'Haah, you're not gonna answer anything, are you?' I was annoyed. We arrived in front of a door. Like always, we were a lot earlier than the teacher.

There were, however, already a lot of students. They all looked toward us, and just like the day before yesterday, I could see their gazes filled with curiosity and others with disdain.

I could only assume that their unreasonable hatred is because of Sylph and the fact that I'm weak.

It is honestly perfectly understandable. We're in a world where having incompetent teammates gets you killed. Imagine trusting your back to your teammate only to be stabbed in the back because he died...

And as we're young, they don't consider the possibility that I may choose the magic researcher path. "How annoying."

As I made my way toward the back of the class with Sylph, I saw a red-haired boy. He looked at me too, with eyes of disdain.

However, when I looked at his bruises, a smile appeared on my face. He got angry, then stood up, walked toward me, and grabbed me by the collar.

"You piss-low bastard! Who do you think you're mock-" Before he could finish, I grabbed one of his bruised arms and clenched it.

"Ahh! You fucking bastard! Let go!" He cried in pain. I didn't try to overpower him; I only chose a rational way. I'm not a protagonist or something.

Before we could continue, the teacher entered the class. We, like with the swordsmanship lesson, were in a huge dome-shaped room.

It was a tall male teacher, he had green eyes and long black hair. His face had sharp features, but for some reason, it made him look extremely kind.

"Alright, alright, good morning, students. I'm your practical magic teacher, Victor. Here, I am going to teach you how to use and handle magic." He smiled broadly, causing the girls in the class to blush.

"I won't go back into details because you should have already had a class with Iris. We will thus directly go practice mana." As he said that, he walked toward the center of the dome.

There was a stone floor, and on it were mannequins. "Good, now would anyone like to show us a demonstration of magic?" He turned toward us and asked.

"Me, me!" A girl with brown hair among the hundreds of kids raised her arm and excitedly shouted to be chosen. "Alright, you go," the teacher answered.

She then started chanting as a small flame appeared between her hands. After a minute, she threw the flame toward the mannequins, completely missing them...

However, everyone applauded, as if what she just did was incredible. The flame just dispersed without even scorching the small blades of weed growing between the concrete floor.

The teacher looked at her and nodded, "Incredible display of magic. The accuracy is a bit off, but that doesn't change the fact that you cast your spell. With some practice, you won't miss as often."

The girl looked even prouder. This made me cringe a bit, as casting a spell like this would have a hard time lighting a piece of paper.

Then, like a chain reaction, everyone wanted to demonstrate what they were capable of. The results were all the same except for a few, like a girl with black hair and blue eyes, and a boy with the exact same features. Maybe siblings or twins. And some other students.

Then, as everyone tried, Sylph and I were the last ones. We were in a corner.

"Sylph, would you mind showing us your skills?" The teacher smiled, his eyes closed. For some reason, I felt there was more to it than just showing.

Sylph looked at him and just walked some distance away from a mannequin. She didn't chant, and just held her hand nonchalantly toward the target.

In front of her palm, water appeared in about twenty seconds. The water then slowly froze, taking the shape of a spear, and launched toward the mannequin.

It didn't pierce through, but it did pack a punch. Everyone had their mouths agape. The casting was done silently, the time was shorter, and the power behind it was incomparable to them.

"Fabulous! Truly worthy of your family!" The teacher smiled as he loudly praised.

This caused a commotion as everyone got to know that she came from a somewhat prestigious family with just that sentence.

I could clearly see that the teacher had done it on purpose. He then looked toward me and asked me to demonstrate as well.

"I can't control mana." I simply told him. He just smiled, "Oh, but don't worry. I heard about your case. I will help you to the best of my abilities."

After that, he started teaching us how to manipulate and cast spells. From time to time, he would come toward me, seeing how I advanced, only to go away soon.

I wasn't progressing, and I could clearly feel his disgust toward me. What an asshole, but I can't blame him. Mana should be handled by everyone from a young age, and here I was, a pariah...

"Mana is like your blood; it circulates in your body. But all the blood goes by one point, your heart, which is also where your mana core is situated." The teacher finally said something.

Maybe my pitiful efforts made him annoyed, so he decided to help me.

Before I could try to feel my mana core, red runes appeared before my eyes.

{Host doesn't possess a mana core anymore}

'What!? Why!? What do you mean by anymore?'

{Where do you think the system took the source of power to repair your soul from?}

'But that's unfair! I didn't want to go to that place in the first place!'

{If the world was fair, what use is there for people to try and become stronger?}

'But... what am I supposed to do now?'

{How could I know?}

'You're the system! Why do the things I read say that systems are OP while mine can only show my status... and repair souls...'

{Exactly, I have already gone beyond my authority to save you, and you thank me by blaming me.}

'Alright, sorry. I wasn't thinking... Maybe I should just kill myself right now and see if I wake up. Maybe this is just a nightmare.'

'Like I'd let you.'

Just as I thought of taking my own life, I heard my own voice talking back.

I felt intense shudders. I've been having doubts since the day I killed myself, but I think I may suffer from a mental illness.

Well, not like anyone except mentally ill people would stab and gut themselves, haha...

I then checked my status.

---

Status:

[Name: Dante (self-proclaimed)]

Race: -

Talent: N/A

Attributes:

Strength: G-

Agility: G-

Mana Pool: N/A

Mana Quality: ?

Dexterity: G

Intelligence: B-

Magic: N/A

Stamina: G-

System appraisal: {You have lost your mana core; your entire being is suffering from mana exhaustion. Living without mana can't maintain your existence. Do something.}

System Skills: [???], [???], [System], [Appraisal], [Everlasting Evolution]

Skills: ?

Per Bond: 1/1, [???]

Current status: coreless, slowly dying, ???

Exp: 7

---

'Maybe that's why I've been feeling so weak and nauseous since this morning.'

I didn't really care if I was dying. At least I wouldn't have to commit suicide. I should try and explore this world for a bit, though. I've taken a liking to it.

As I was thinking, the bell announced the end of class, and like always, we were free to do whatever. There were no lessons on the weekends, so I was free to di- explore for the next three days.

A smile appeared on my face as I started heading toward my room. I was going to prepare some food and water. I planned on using the time I had left to do some funny, dumb things...

On my way to the forest, people kept strangely looking at me. I was smiling happily at how I was going to have fun with new goblins.

Ok that sounded weird…

I wouldn't care less about what they were thinking, I was literally dying by the second. Like I was going to make a fuss over these filthy pieces of cra-?

'Why would I insult them when they did nothing wrong?' 'Who cares?' My own voice answered me again...

...