Isaac walked Northbound and past the Dormitories of Yves. He detoured through the facilities and traced along the wall of the campus before finally focusing on a single path.
Sooner or later, after much rustling, he fell upon a rusty shed that faced against the walls of the Institute. In comparison, the lock used to seal the shack was far less technological than the entire Institute. He held it up to his hand and muttered a softer Clause-Construct.
"A.M.A?"
…
Hmmm…
…
"Wind Slash?"
The lock was chipped by the arc of wind.
Remaining MP: 280 / 300 |
'Laccerate' would probably be too loud, plus I'm not sure if I have enough firepower.
Therefore, again and again, Isaac In-Threaded his favourite 'Spell' until 5 sawed at the lock.
Remaining MP: 180 / 300 |
Once it broke, he entered the abandoned shed and found it filled with tools and materials of a craftsman. Here lies the life of someone who produced the wooden carpentry of EINA from the past.
It's super generic that I know there's something here that will help me in the later Arc, just because it pissed me off how I couldn't clear Arc III easily.
It's not a super OP item like those other stories portrayed as some secret gem cuz I don't know what the fuck the creator of EAA was thinking, but it was nevertheless an item crucial to the game in order to ascend the Stormbreak Spiral faster than the others.
Isaac riffled through the remaining tools, with his attention being caught by other items such as spirit levels and a modular screwdriver kit.
Hmm… Could be useful for the future. I'm not here only for the 'secret gem'. It was always annoying that I saw stories that described items that were useful in the future, and I only went for the cheat item.
Plus, I was always the type of guy who salvaged old parts.
Would it look weird to him, though?
Isaac stored these items in his pocket. But what he was really after was but a simple marlow rope.
Polymer Marlow Rope.
Super fucking simple for a cheat item, but when I reach floor 25~27 ish of the Stormbreak Spiral, I don't think I'll be good enough nor have enough Mana to cast 'Flight' to continue ascending.
That's why I need this insulating rope that should, by right, hold my weight. It could hold Caelum, who is nearly 1.3x my current body's weight… How the fuck do I remember that… so that should be fine. It's super long and strong as well, so I'll have it remolded into some kind of hook before I head into the Spiral.
Even after that, I could shave off some skin of the rope to make a meteor hammer for me or a Mana Swordsman who would be willing to learn to use it.
I'll see first.
Well, it's nearly 30 minutes, so I gotta go back to the tour.
Still, it's gonna look MAD weird holding such a long rope…
"Yo, Isaac! Whatchu doing?"
Like you wouldn't know… weren't you trailing me?
Only one student would be as expressive as he is.
Senior Marcus Kim.
"Let me cut to the chase, courtesy of being a good friend, right? I've been observing you since you sat for your NCAT. Let me tell you what I have. First, during the In-Threading assessment, you used the Clause-Construct designation 'Wind Slash.' No preparation program today teaches it. Your Noësis terminology is from a date when you couldn't have been studying."
Isaac nods.
"Second. Your boxing technique — we submitted it to the WBF, which codified those specific movements as newer developments. You use pre-reform terminology but post-reform combat technique. These two data points cannot come from the same education timeline, don't you think?"
Isaac nods once more.
"Third. Your relation to Headmaster Orthellius. In my entire student journey in EINA, I've never come across someone being directly called to the Headmaster, let alone a First-Year. Perhaps he has taken an interest in you?"
Isaac shrugs.
"Fourth, I won't even question the legality of you breaking into the shed. But I'm more concerned about your actions. Five In-Threads of A.M.A on a padlock that one A.S.A would have cleared. Do you know the power of your own Noësis? Or first… Is it even… Your Noësis?"
This point got to Isaac; it was something he was deliberating himself. As he was about to speak out, he was cut off by Marcus.
"And most importantly. During the NCAT, I distinctly heard you mutter: 'like the original'. 'Original' as in a prior version? Or what? What do you mean by 'Original'?"
Did I actually say that? Shit… I'm sure I didn't.
Marcus takes his hands out of his pockets and moves to a slightly bladed stance with his hands low, a threatening gesture as if he were awaiting combat.
"I don't ever underestimate a student, I won't ever. Knowing what I do, I'm ready to take you on fully seriously."
Marcus, reverting to his repressed personality, adds his final thesis.
"Isaac Mun, I suspect you to be a body-swapped Kabbalist who is trying to infiltrate EINA. One from, at bare minimum, the Vassalage of the High Priestess brought to today, as you always do. One who is a tricky bastard who fooled our dear Headmaster. Fortunately for me, one who isn't yet accustomed to their new body."
A Thaumitonic Zone of approximately 9 meters radius in the Unmolded state was Out-Threaded.
Fourth-Year Supreme-Class Wave Binder: Kim Keo-Seul.
"Are you? If you admit it and follow me. We don't have to do this."
There was silence for 1.4 seconds.
Hah… I just wanna be braindead bro…
Why do I keep getting mf's I can't beat Magically/Physically/Informationally…
Nevermind.
His 4th point is correct. I have no way to counter that without it seeming convenient.
Tackling the 5th point first, he could very well be lying right out of his ass to see if I react. But there's a confidence in his assertion. Also, if I go by game lore, Kynetic-trained hearing exceeds 20 meters even in a loud hall.
Actually, the important question is not whether I said it but what interpretation Marcus can lock me into.
Upon denial explicitly — "I never said that" — Isaac would have committed to a claim he cannot verify, and Keo-Seul knows he cannot verify it.
Who is in the bargaining high ground?
Based on trust and merit, Keo-Seul's words would hold more truth than Isaacs. Any future witness or coerced witness who heard something similar becomes a weight on his argument.
Yet, if Isaac confirms partially — "I might have said something like that" — he would have given him the basis to demand an explanation for the 'original.'
Hmmm…
"The fifth point first, since it's the most interesting. You're a damn creep, Marcus. At the bare minimum, there were approximately 15 meters that separated you from me. Four people near me were reacting vocally to the scores of Princess Anzhelika. I'm sure they, the majority, were still discussing it even after the NCAT. You isolated one muttered phrase at that distance, attributed it to me specifically, and built a case around it."
Isaac stares at the unhedging Keo-Seul.
"Did someone tell you to watch me specifically before the NCAT started?"
Randoms stray: It's 100% Caelum Veldt.
That damn Clanker.
"Even aside from that, 'Original'? Yes. I was a teaching assistant for a private Noësis preparation program before EINA. I ran a standardized assessment series internally, which I called the 'original NCAT format'. The CCAU isn't part of the program's evaluation system, as traditionals used manual scoring. When I saw it, my first thought was that it wasn't in our program's original format. I filed a complaint to Headmaster Orthellius, who reviewed my report of confusion and requested me to elaborate on the flaws of changing the testing system."
It is unverifiable for the time being, and it is internally consistent with his stated 'private tutor' background. Instead of Points 1, 2, and 3 supporting an anomalous timeline, they now support an alternative, innocent one.
Keo-Seul's eyes light up, rebutting immediately.
"Private Noësis preparation programs operate under the reformed nomenclature. They have been since the standardization year. Going off your exact words, you need a license to tutor as well.
Why don't you show it to me?
But more importantly, the WBF codified those specific boxing movements you used four years after Noësis reform closed. A single private tutor couldn't have taught you both simultaneously; one system had already been deprecated before the other was even formalized."
For real? I distinctly remember a paid private tutoring event without the mention of any license.
To be fair… Smarter fuckers.
Still… I can ragebait~ Hehehe…
Ad Hominem and Red Herrings…
"Don't give a shit. Don't you tutor your friends? Your boxing observation required someone to tell you what footwork inconsistency to look for. Kynetics don't usually analyse Wave Binder footwork by default, right? There's no tactical reason to because you all just close the distance and strike. That means your friends received a specification of which behavioral markers to track. Points 1 through 4 were induced to you."
Keo-Seul deliberated on his situation; he had been caught out.
"Which means the question isn't whether your 5 points are accurate. It's whether the person who handed you those 5 points has a good idea of me. And that person built their ideas today, during the tour. Because everything you've cited happened today. Your briefer was a damn stalker or has real-time access to institute logs. Either way — aren't they close?"
"Tsk… What a convenient explanation. You're not even addressing the points. The origin of my intelligence doesn't change its accuracy."
"And? Convenient and correct are different only in whether you verify them. If the briefer reached a conclusion about me before assembling the evidence, and then suggested to you a framework built to confirm that conclusion, you just want ratification."
The gritting of Keo-Seul's teeth was evident.
I don't want enemies though…
"Not like I can't answer… I'll stop with my logical fallacy shenanigans. Point 5, Laceration in an enclosed corrugated metal shed generates a sharp transient sound; you should know that more than I. The shed faces the campus wall, not open ground. Reflected sound at that angle would carry toward the dormitory block. Five Wind Slashes don't accumulate that way. Why the hell would I want to be caught out as you have? If you want to argue I was in a foreign body, you need evidence that I miscalibrated."
The answer is airtight on its face.
And it's delivered without the reliance on the TA story. Ordinarily, this would be fine.
But the precision of it to Keo-Seul:
Decibels, reflective acoustics, and dormitory proximity
It is itself anomalous for a First-Year Wave Binder who should not be reasoning about Clause-Constructs in this manner.
Think… Right… Why?
"You have an unusual way of thinking, Isaac… But how does that unusual way of thinking give you knowledge of this shed? And why does it need you to take those items with you?"
The shed is against the perimeter wall, a place not on the official tour route. A First-Year navigating directly there on their first day implies prior knowledge of the campus layout, which a legitimate First-Year should not have, let alone break into it.
"I am quite quirky hehe… But nah, you showed me the north face of Yves and the facility line in the same thirty-minute window."
Recalling back, there's a gap between them at the perimeter. Structures of the campus's age don't leave perimeter gaps empty where utility storage is usually built.
"I wondered about the shed's existence from your tour. If you want to argue, that's suspicious; you're arguing that spatial inference from observable architecture is suspicious. Which implicates anyone with pattern recognition and a half-hour of walking is a Kabbalistic Body Swapper. Plus… You legit can ask Headmaster. I asked him for the location of the storage when I went to the Administrative Room."
It was in that moment that the question posed to Headmaster Orthellius came back to assist Isaac. A purposeful question was asked to add Orthellius' backing to this very argument. Of course, it wasn't Isaac predicting this exact encounter, but the argument of how he knows its location.
"And the items?"
"Seriously? Walk through your own damn conclusion, Marcus. If I'm a Kabbalist who spent months building a cover identity sophisticated enough to fool EINA's enrollment process, survive the NCAT, and deceive Headmaster Orthellius, my Day 1 operational priority is social access. I should be in that Dining Hall building relationships with students who matter. Instead, I'm in a bloody shed with a fucking rope. Dude. Pity me. Whatever I'm doing here, the objective doesn't look like institutional infiltration, hell, if you wanna know a little bit. What I'm doing here actually BENEFITS us all."
He knows that it was a defeated cause. Any further pressuring would just lead to Isaac deflecting or rebutting with illogicality that makes logical sense. He only has one last argument that he could have brought up.
"You could be something different, something that also requires concealment but with a different objective, and I'd argue now, more concerning than a Kabbalist."
"You're right. And? Your source identified a behavioral model of me built from data they gathered today at a processing resolution that rules out standard human observation. There's one candidate in our tour group who fits that profile. Then you should ask yourself. Who is more dangerous? The one inciting you, or me? If you push this further, I'm gonna draw institutional attention to that thing more than you will." Isaac giggled.
"I don't think that thing wants that level of attention yet."
Keo-Seul looked at his situation from a bird's eye point of view. His own instincts were telling him to bring Isaac to a justice he could not prove, yet his logic said that he was an innocent man.
"Hah…"
In the end, he retracted his Out-Thread and stood up straight before approaching Isaac.
"Regardless of what you are or aren't — keep away from First-Year Student Kim Yeong-Hwa, please."
"I don't know who she is, and I'll continue not knowing. Though, thanks for the concern, Marcus. I might hit you up on that offer of being good friends, aren't we? In fact, I want you to help me with a lil' something."
"Why should I? You're a First-Year."
"Yeah, an above average one, duh… Plus… Why not? Y'know?"
The astonished Kim Keo-Seul could not help but roll his eyes at such a bland response. Internally, he was equally cringing at the genericness of the response as Isaac did himself, forcing himself to give such an answer.
In fact, Isaac understood this, and it was what allowed him to revert Fourth-Year Supreme-Class Wave Binder: Kim Keo-Seul into Senior Assistant Marcus Kim.
"Hah… Aren't you then going back to the socializing goals of being a Kabbalistic Body Swapper?"
"Per chance… Hehe… Keep all this a secret, back me up later when everyone comments about how I hold a fucking rope like an idiot."
"That's it? I co—"
"One last thing… Who was the person who incited all those points, btw? I know you got a group of friends who help you, but I don't think it's them."
"Hmmm…"
He was hesitant to reveal the identity of the proctor to the subject in question. Isaac merely had to nudge his consciousness into a vulnerable state.
"Trust me… I assume Kim Yeong-Hwa is your sister, and I feel that dealing with that guy would benefit all three of us, no?"
"Guy?" Marcus bleated.
"Yeah, I know it's a fucking dude, in fact, a pussy bit—"
Isaac was cut off.
"No. What? If I remember correctly… That person… she's a first-year like you."
…
"Huh?"