Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 82

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 82. Galaxy Martial God Hall – Exchange with Seniors (1)

The fourth and fifth days of the ranking tournament passed without incident.
On the fourth day, I accepted a challenge from someone in the same Class 1 who had fallen below twentieth place, and I won, but on the fifth day, Cheon Myeong-tae, who had been defeated by Cheon So-yeon, challenged me.
“Why is he challenging me?”
If he lost to Cheon Ha-sung, who was second place, on the fourth day, shouldn’t he challenge Cheon Gong-hu, who was third place, on the fifth day?
Either way, since I was already within the top twenty, it didn’t matter if I accepted his challenge.
So I accepted the challenge from the thirty-seventh ranked competitor.
Whether I accepted or declined the challenge didn’t really matter, did it?
Cheon Myeong-tae came back to Class 1 and complained about why I wouldn’t accept his challenge, but Teacher Kim Do-hwa chased him out.
Since it was the final day of the ranking tournament and the rankings roughly matched ability levels, even the thirty-seventh ranked competitor was a formidable opponent.
But I managed to secure victory while conceding six points.
Thus, I finished the ranking tournament in seventh place overall.
Without Cheon So-yeon’s three weeks of practical training, I honestly would have dropped below twentieth place.
“Cheon Bu-hyeon, ranked seventeenth.”
Cheon Bu-hyeon, whom I had fought on the third day, made it into the top twenty as I predicted, and we would be in the same class next year.
Time passed, and I became a second-year student.

* * *

I spent my winter break quite busily.
I focused entirely on building my body to restore balance to my destabilized core, and the supplementary classes that the Family Head imposed continued through winter break as well.
I also had to consistently participate in Club activities for the Club support, so I didn’t have much free time.
Still, I didn’t just train during the break.
During the break, I went sledding, visited an ice rink, built a snowman in front of the house, and had snowball fights.
I also invited Cheon Ga-ryeong, Cheon Gong-hu, and Teacher Kim Do-hwa to have a Christmas party in the Club Room.
The reason I invited Teacher Kim Do-hwa was because we needed a guardian to use fire in the Club Room.
I didn’t even invite Teacher Riven to the party, but she naturally joined in and played with us.
Now that I think about it, I had plenty of fun.
And when the new semester began, I headed to my new second-year Class 1.
From second year onward, instead of being divided into “Second Year Class 2-A” and “Second Year Class 2-B,” classes were divided by numbers only.
It’s a harsh reality, but the lower the class number, the higher the ranking, and the higher the number, the lower the ranking.
About half of my classmates’ faces were from the same class last year, but the other half were new faces.
The Class 1 homeroom teacher was still Teacher Kim Do-hwa.
It seemed like Teacher Kim Do-hwa would be my homeroom teacher for all six years.
“Now, since some of you don’t know each other, let’s do introductions. Starting from number one, Cheon Siu.”
At Teacher Kim Do-hwa’s call, Cheon Siu stood up from her seat and introduced herself.
During first year, class numbers were based on name order, but after the ranking tournament, from second year onward, numbers were assigned by ranking.
Since I maintained seventh place, my number changed to seven as well.
Looking at the entire class, there were eight Second Tier students and twelve Third Tier students, for a total of twenty.
If even I, who can’t use inner energy, am classified as Second Tier, then what does that say?
After the students finished their introductions in order, they sat in their usual seats and attended morning classes in Virtual Reality.
Attending individual morning classes seemed to continue until graduation from school—or rather, until high school graduation.
The morning classes weren’t much different from first year.
Each student received level-appropriate instruction in Virtual Reality, and students with slower progress had their time multiplier increased for supplementary classes to keep up with the curriculum.
For advanced students, free time was given according to their preference, or they moved ahead in the curriculum.
Of course, regardless of my wishes, I had to be subjected to whatever science and mathematics Teacher Riven wanted to teach.
“Teacher, your pace is too fast.”
“Is it? Then let’s review it once more!”
Are you insane?! Don’t teach an elementary school student four-dimensional interference equations and tenth-degree simultaneous polynomials through cosmic orbital functions! My brain is going to explode!
Well, Teacher Riven’s teaching method is interesting, so I am learning with enjoyment.
Especially with the virtual planet terraforming simulator and android robot manufacturing kit programming, I lost track of time playing with them.
“But aren’t we covering history, social studies, music, and art?”
“History and social studies are progressing sufficiently now. Music is being provided as background music.”
Excuse me, by background music, you mean the classical music playing softly right now?
This wasn’t turned on to improve concentration—you’re using this to skip music class entirely?
“As for art… I’ll be honest with you. Cheon Ji-woo, you have no talent in art. You learning art is no different than throwing time into the garbage.”
“Wow, that’s pretty harsh.”
“But it’s the truth, isn’t it? Still, if you want, I’ll download an art museum simulator. We can appreciate masterpieces about once a month.”
“No, honestly I’m not interested in art either, but I’d like to learn an instrument instead.”
At my words, Riven looked at me with disbelief.
“A musical instrument? Ji-woo?”
“…I’ll be learning sound-based martial arts later anyway. But is it really that shocking that I want to learn an instrument?”
“Well, Ji-woo, you’re a bit… tone-deaf.”
I bristled at Riven’s remark.
“That’s exactly why I’m trying to learn music to fix it! Besides, I have improved since I started learning the recorder.”
I’d been far worse at it before.
“That’s commendable. But do you really need to learn from me?”
“If you don’t want to, fine. I’ll just teach myself instruments and come to school at ten o’clock from now on.”
“Of course you should learn from me! What do you want to learn? Piano? Guitar? Drums? Trumpet? Flute? Oboe? Cello? Violin? Just name it! What’s the advantage of Virtual Reality? It’s that we can instantly materialize even the most expensive instruments!”
Riven, unwilling to lose teaching time with me, volunteered to teach me herself.
“Then shall we practice an hour of instruments daily? With time acceleration, it’s only about twenty minutes anyway.”
“Isn’t daily a bit much, Ji-woo?”
After becoming a second-year student, Riven and I adjusted the schedule through playful bickering.
We ultimately agreed to learn an instrument for one hour a day, three days a week.

* * *

As time passed, I grew accustomed to second-year life.
In truth, since nothing had changed from first year, calling it “accustomed” was a bit of a misnomer.
The main change upon becoming a second-year student was simply that afternoon classes increased slightly.
Physical training time decreased somewhat, while time spent learning swordsmanship and sparring with classmates increased.
Since my inner energy remained sealed, I was still ranked seventh, but my sparring win rate fell below thirty percent.
I had to fight without inner energy, but my opponents grew increasingly familiar with my fighting style, so the result was inevitable.
Even reaching close to thirty percent was thanks to the realistic combat sparring I’d conducted daily with Cheon So-yeon throughout winter break.
Teacher Kim Do-hwa called me aside and asked.
“When do you think you’ll be able to unseal your inner energy?”
“I’m not sure. My physical growth rate is faster than expected, so if things go well, I might be able to unseal some of my energy meridians before year’s end, but who knows what will happen.”
In fact, I was already practicing energy manipulation for thirty minutes daily while Siu loosened the seal slightly.
Beyond that, I occasionally returned to my original body to refine my swordsmanship using inner energy.
My reincarnation clone’s body was like a balloon on the verge of bursting, but my original body hadn’t yet lost the balance of my core yet.
Thanks to this, the sensations I gained from fighting the Orc Warrior became entirely my own.
When my inner energy was sealed, I’d worried I might lose my sense of it, but my sensitivity to energy manipulation proved superior to expected.
“Some energy meridians? Just how much inner energy do you have?”
I couldn’t very well tell him it was nearly at the pinnacle level.
Since Siu had strictly warned me not to reveal information about my condition to anyone, I simply laughed it off.
“If you don’t want to say, you don’t have to. Your teacher will handle it well enough.”
I believe that too.
If my calculations were correct, unsealing some energy meridians should be possible once my muscle density stat exceeded an average of thirty.
To fully unseal it, I’d need an average of at least around fifty.
“If you release your energy restriction, how much inner power can you use?”
“Well, I’m not entirely sure, but maybe Third Tier? I think using Second Tier martial techniques should be manageable.”
Of course, since the amount of inner power I can use is limited, I won’t be able to fight for long.
“Hmm, that should be sufficient for this year’s ranking tournament. Your sword technique is developing rapidly precisely because you’re lacking in raw power right now. Though later on, you might need to practice power control.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Teacher Kim Do-hwa nodded at my words.
“By the way, what are you going to do about your club?”
“Pardon? What do you mean?”
“Soon there will be an exchange event between clubs and graduated seniors. Usually senior club members attend, but yours is a newly formed club.”
Last year around this time, it wasn’t yet club recruitment season, so there was no need to attend an exchange event with seniors, but this year since we’d formed and were actively running a club, we had to participate.
Since that’s how the academic calendar works, there’s no helping it even if it’s annoying.
“But shouldn’t you be telling Cheon So-yeon about this? She’s the club president.”
“Well… you’re the vice president, aren’t you?”
Since I communicate better than Cheon So-yeon, she’s just telling me directly.
“If we don’t know anyone, can’t we just skip it?”
“That’s… well, I’ll be direct with you since you’re sharp. Originally, when you enter society, regional ties, school ties, and blood ties become important.”
Wait, even if my inner self is an adult, I’m still in second grade at Elementary School—are you really telling me this?
“Yes, well… they’ve been considered important since ancient times.”
Regardless of East or West, regional ties, school ties, and blood ties have always been important elements of social relationships.
Even martial arts sects are fundamentally organized around blood ties, aren’t they?
In the martial world where sword fights happen more frequently than in peaceful civilian society, “can you trust the other person” was the most important factor.
Unfortunately, regional ties, school ties, and blood ties—these old evils and bad habits—were far too convenient and easy metrics for measuring trust as a “common denominator” between people.
Knowing someone through a connection also meant it was easy to learn about that person’s usual reputation.
After all, what’s convenient tends to stagnate, and what stagnates tends to rot.
If I found this inconvenient and disagreeable, I should simply leave the martial world.
Born into a martial arts sect where blood ties reign supreme, I was far too small and weak to resist and claim it was unjust.
Sometimes as you live, you must face unavoidable realities.
As I made a reluctant expression, Teacher Kim Do-hwa blushed in embarrassment and cleared her throat.
“Ahem! It’s shameful for an adult to say, but building connections with seniors is something I’d recommend for your future.”
“Yes, well, I understand that. But wouldn’t it have been better to give a more respectable reason on the surface? Why not phrase it more carefully?”
“I thought you’d understand quickly if I spoke directly like this. Honestly, even if I beat around the bush, you’d catch on anyway.”
I won’t deny that.
“Still, please try to preserve a child’s dreams and hopes as much as possible.”
“A truly young child doesn’t call themselves a child. You’re a jaded little thing without dreams.”
“Haha. Is that so? Then I’ll do the exchange event with the senior you recommend. Honestly, I need to know the senior first.”
The senior exchange event isn’t about calling adults, but rather inviting graduated high school students to build connections and incidentally have them provide guidance.
Middle school students weren’t yet at the level to teach elementary students, but by high school, according to the curriculum, they’d be at the level of an assistant teacher helping Teacher Kim Do-hwa now.
“More than the exchange event, please tell Cheon Myeong-tae that if he likes Cheon So-yeon, he should confess instead of making my life difficult.”
During the ranking tournament, the only reason he challenged me—someone just one rank below him who couldn’t even use inner power—was because he fell for Cheon So-yeon at first sight and got jealous watching us spend time together.
“Haha, it’s just youthful jealousy, isn’t it?”
“If you keep this up, Cheon So-yeon will hear about it.”
“…I’ll be more careful. Please, I won’t do it again.”
At my warning, Teacher Kim Do-hwa pressed her forehead, looking dizzy.
Considering Cheon Myeong-tae’s talent, he would likely be in the same class for the next five years, so if she offended him badly, she’d be saddled with a five-year headache—no wonder she had a headache.

(Continued in the next chapter)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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