Dungeon Prowler : One Man Army

Chapter 4: Revenge of Bai

While the boys were busy taking advantage of their newfound cheat, instructor Bai dropped by their table and sat down while yawning, neither of the youngsters paid any attention to instructor Bai, nothing more than a look and a nod of acknowledgement. While they were discussing the finer details of a low-level magic formula, Leol had a flash of brilliance and tugged at Yunan, then whispered to him " suppose your teacher can cast magic?" Yunan immediately caught on what his roommate wanted and looked at his inspector "probably?" answered Yunan. "He should be able to since he got a special class, I didn't think he will be useful, look at him still yawning when its almost midday" Yunan made sure Bai would hear that last part, but truly those with thicker skins are harder to shame, as instructor Bai just yawned again at the comment Yunan made.

seeing instructor Bai response or to be accurate, a lack thereof, the boys exchanged a few glances, Yunan put a notebook in front of Bai and said: "cast this". Bai just glanced at the formula and shook his head, then pushed the notebook back to the boys without a word.

"Okey, so far so good" Leol whispered to Yunan, then placed another magic formulae in front of Bai "how about this?" The formula was the most used spell in the dungeon, mage light, it was a very simple non-elemental spell that needed no grimoire to learn due to its simplicity, this time Bai cast the spell for just a moment. He slowed his mana, showed how it constructed the formula into a magic circle that converted mana into the light.

The boys looked at each other happily and began placing all kinds of formulae in front of Bai so he would cast them. Seeing him reject casting the faulty ones and build the circle only for the working ones, it was a testament to his control over his mana, and vast practical experience in casting, this helped them repair the faulty ones they made, and get a better hang on how to translate a formula into a magical construct, removing a lot of misunderstandings they had. All in all, making their progress much smoother when it came into constructing magical formulae and recognizing the faulty ones.

By the end of the morning period Bai was dozing off, and all the good points he earned with the boys were lost soon. Once the period was over Bai stood up and said to Yunan "for second period bring two daggers and meet me in training hall number 5" then he turned around and left the same way he came, sporting a yawn and tired look. Afterwards, the duo left the library and headed for the diner, on the way they discussed how to fully use the lazy instructor, and squeeze every bit of usefulness out off of him. Come the afternoon, Leol went to the dorm while Yunan went to meet Bai.

Instructor Bai still had the same bored expression as ever, once Yunan arrived Bai demonstrated three moves to Yunan, first a stab, then a slash and lastly a cut. Bai did not demonstrate all the possible angles or dagger holds. He went for the straight forward sword like grip, and only showed the minimum movement necessary for each attack, then he said: " use the moves I showed you to attack me, I dodge and correct your stance. If you hit me you pass the dagger class". And just like so, Yunan got his first beating in the academy, at the hand of his instructor, Bai did not use much strength and only hit Yunan to correct his stance or attack form. Bai did not even bother about the defensive moves with Yunan, especially since his form could barely meet the minimum of a beginner practitioner. The method of using pain and fear as stimuli worked more often than not, thus instructor Bai did not go further than causing mild discomfort without leaving marks.

For Yunan, it was the worst kind of treatment, if you get injured in a war, you should have scars to brag about, this type of teaching was like taking someone to the war, having them torn apart, then take away all their scars when you heal them with magic. Other than that, the boy was very satisfied with the session. even though he trained with the Knights of the church, he was like a monkey imitating them, they would only correct him if they saw a major fault that could be detrimental to his training, otherwise, he was left to his own devices. but in this session, he learned the importance of a stance and form while using a weapon, and he was thankful for it.

The next day, both Yunan and Leol went to the library earlier than most, to borrow the next embarrassing book Bai had tasked Yunan to study for the chanting lessons: "nursery rhymes for the tone deaf", this one was basically made to teach toddlers how to 'follow the beat', it came with music scores and sheets detailing how to perfectly sing the most simplistic nursery rhymes. As they mentioned the book to the librarian he laughed hard, he laughed so hard he choked while dusting the tomes that lay untouched for years. the boys solemnly took the books offered by the librarian; who was still in a coughing fit laced with laughter here and there.

Upon looking inside the book, they understood why instructor Bai chose it, but they still thought it was revenge for yesterday, as he could have mentioned any other chanting book and they would have almost the same content. the book was written in a way that would give anyone who read it, no matter how musically challenged they were, the ability to follow with a choir and blend in, quite the powerful book you might think, but what ruined it was that it was written with nursery rhymes, the simplest music type of all.

When Bai arrived he looked even worse than yesterday, dishevelled hair, his dark halos almost covered half his face, his eyes were swollen and had a tint of red, whatever kept him up last night did a number on him.

When Bai sat down, he told the two to sing each rhyme in the book starting from the first to the last, the rhymes were not hard to follow, and were even easy to synchronise between the two of them, it started well, until Bai started drumming on the table to a different song altogether, that disrupted them easily, once the harmonious duet started to crumble; thanks to Bai's interference, all other students in the library came about to watch and snicker at the silliness of the scene, even the librarian was among them, shaking but unable to laugh out loud, for fear of disturbing the instructor who seemed to not even know how to tap in accordance with a nursery rhyme. if this group came around daily, it would be his new reason to come to work. this was the most fun the library had seen in the few years he had worked here.

While Bai kept up his pointless tapping, Yunan and Leol had turned beet red from embarrassment and anger, which further disrupted their duet, on this day, they could not even finish the first rhyme, much less go through the book as instructed by Bai, meaning they would have to keep doing the same until they could finish the book, an impossible task for ten-year-olds who still have a long way before they mature.