Arriving in front of a huge chamber on the ground floor, Liz turned to us cadets and spoke loudly, ensuring her voice reached every ear present here.
"This chamber functions as a vault. And inside this vault is every weapon imaginable."
The cadets couldn't help but gasp in marvel at that statement. Claiming to have every weapon imaginable in one room is a little unbelievable.
"Every weapon imaginable? Just how big of a room is it?" I, too, didn't believe it.
Since this scene in the novel was never shown, I didn't know what happened in the weapon selection.
However, my question was soon answered when Liz started knocking on the door consecutively.
Knock– Knock– Knock–
After the third consecutive knock, the door started opening all by itself like it was automatic.
And I swear to god my eyes came out of my sockets when the inside of the chamber was revealed.
-"How is it that big?!"
-"Why is it so big?!"
Everyone was stunned, and although their questions were misleading… they were indeed right!
Why was this place so big?! How can a single room be so big?!
From an outsider's point of view, it looked like every other room situated on this unusually big floor with nothing special about it.
But after peeking inside it, one would consider checking in with an eye doctor. This room was not just huge! It was massive!
Its proportions from the outside and inside weren't matching! It was almost as if this room existed in a hyperspace.
At that moment, Liz spoke up again.
"Come inside," she said while walking into the vault. "Stop gawking at it like some country bumpkins. It's just a room."
Everyone bitterly followed Liz inside after her last statement. She was surely a bitch.
I couldn't help but look around as soon as I stepped inside.
I knew I was inside a fantasy novel where magic existed, but this was breaking the laws of physics!
This room alone was as big as the whole floor it was situated on! And in front of us were hundred of weapons kept on display.
But I am still trying to grasp how it could be possible for every weapon known to man to be present in this location. While I recognize that this place is large and has a significant number of weapons, I find it hard to believe that every kind of weapon could be here.
"See these things?" what shook me out of my daze was a captivating voice. It was Liz. She was pointing at some inscriptions on the walls.
Those ancient-looking inscriptions looked like they were carved into the wall, and for some reason, they were glowing in a faint blue hue.
"These are spatial runes. Capable of altering the very fabric of space within an enclosed area." Liz explained.
Ahh, that makes sense. Runes! Of course!
In this world, there are two ways to use mana.
Use it as a pure energy source to power machines, or use it for what it's meant to be used for— magic.
Now there are several ways to use magic.
Using magic is essentially asking the universe to grant you your wish.
If you wish to create fire, you must converse with the universe and ask it to grant you the power to create fire.
There are many ways to converse with the universe—drawings, writings, speech, hand signs, etc.
The process of conversing with the universe is called 'Casting Spell.'
However, you need to have two things in order to get your wish fulfilled by the universe.
One, you need to have enough mana to cast your spell.
Say, if you wish to create a fire hot enough to melt tungsten, you must fuel your spell with just the right amount of mana.
If you don't have that amount of mana, then your spell will fall short. If you oversupply mana into your spell, then it will be hard to control.
The second thing you need for casting spells is affinity.
If you wish to create fire, you must have an affinity for the fire element. If you have an affinity for water and you wish to create fire, you will only fail.
Drawing is another method of casting spells. These drawings are called Runes.
Runes are like one-time usable batteries. You create them, imbue them with mana and let them do their work.
They would disappear when the mana inside them would exhaust.
Although, only elves know how to create them, and they claim it's something they can't teach since it's 'memories' passed down to them by their ancestors.
Furthermore, it takes a lot of mana to draw even one normal rune, let alone a rune capable of altering space. And this room was filled with such spatial runes.
It makes one wonder how much effort and workforce it must've taken to make such a wonder possible.
"Stop daydreaming, you insects! Hurry and choose your main weapon!" Liz yelled and shook everyone out of their awe.
"Stand in front of your desired weapon, and I'll take them out of the display for you." She continued.
"You won't be able to change your main weapon till the bi-annual exam, so choose wisely. If there's anything you can't find, tell me, and I'll take it out from the Dimensional Rings present here." She said while pointing at several recessed shelves present on the walls.
"Ahh!" I nodded my head in understanding.
There were several recessed shelves on the walls. On those shelves were placed dimensional rings.
Dimensional Rings are spatial storage devices. They have a pocket dimension within them which allows users to deposit and equip any inanimate object.
Nothing too out of the box. Every other fantasy novel has storage devices like that. It helps with the flow of the story.
"So she wasn't lying after all," I thought out loud to myself. "Maybe this room does contain every weapon in the world."
Thinking that, I began pondering over what to choose as my main weapon. It was an important decision, after all. I can't just choose anything on a whim.
A main weapon is exactly what it sounds like.
The weapon that cadets will choose now will determine the weapon art they will be studying during their time in the Academy.
Daggers, spears, and sabers, also known as the Holy Trinity of weapons, were popular choices among most cadets.
However, that doesn't mean there weren't other choices to choose from.
There were shields, halberds, bows, gauntlets, guns, maces, etc.
Wait… shields? Why were shields here?
Who would be stupid enough to choose a shield as their main weapon?
Wait, can a shield even be considered a weapon?
And I swear to god if any of you say something like, 'Oh, that superhero uses a shield!' or 'Shield hero uses a shield!' I'll kill myself.
"Just because you are getting these weapons for free and they aren't relics or runic weapons doesn't mean they are cheap. Each weapon here costs around 10 million credits."
Liz said something in the background, but I didn't pay much attention to it. I knew these weapons were expensive.
Oh, by the way, ‹Credits› are the currency of this world.
Since the world's continents were merged into one, and now several other races live on Earth besides humans, many changes have occurred during the last few centuries.
There is now only one government— the Central Government.
Every member of the Central Government is irreplaceable, and there are no elections. Meaning one's position in the Central Government is hereditary.
Furthermore, there is now only one digital currency acceptable throughout the world, which is ‹Credits› or ‹C› for short.
For reference, ten million credits would roughly be around 1,26,125 dollars. Yes, each weapon here was a gold mine.
However, it seemed like only commoners present here were thinking like me.
Cadets belonging to elite households didn't think much of it since they were used to using weapons much more expensive than these.
Tsk, rich peeps.
Nero walked up to a long sword and stood in front of it. Yes, the main protagonist had a talent for swords. Clichè.
Anyway, Quinn was standing in front of a pair of daggers.
Quinn was more of an assassin than a head-on fighter. However, his fighting prowess was nothing to scoff at.
And when combined with his usage of Shadow magic, Quinn was a force to be reckoned with.
Yes, yes, another character with shadow magic who uses daggers… real original.
Anastasia walked up to a bow, and behind her followed Amelia. They both were archers.
Ella chose a rapier as her weapon. She still had an uninterested look on her face.
Was she always this lethargic in the novel too?
William and Elijah were standing in front of a spear and a war hammer, respectively.
While Aster was standing in front of a huge mace, which was at least twice her size, one would wonder, how was she even going to use that with her skinny arms?
Chase, on the other hand, chose a pair of shield gauntlets, and Grace opted for a halberd.
And while this was going on, I was just standing there clueless about what to pick.
Yes, I had yet to decide on a weapon to pick.
Yes, I know I had 14 days of time to think stuff like this, but I wasted them on eating and sleeping….
I was tempted to pick a spear since I knew basic spearmanship from Lucas' memories.
However, I wasn't very comfortable with close or mid-range combat. Not yet, anyway.
Thankfully, Lucas had learned basic archery too, so I knew how to handle a bow.
My next best option, or rather my only remaining option, was now a bow.
Finally deciding after a few minutes of standing still like a statue, I walked up to a recurve bow and stood in front of it patiently.
But soon after, a question shot across my mind, and I raised my hand.
"Yes?" seeing me raising my hand, Liz gestured to me to voice my question.
"You said every weapon that we can think of is here, right?" I asked.
"...Not in those words, but yes."
"So, can I pick a nuclear warhead as my main weapon?"
"... …"
"... …"
"...Do you think this is a joke?"
"...No?"
"...I see. Let me rephrase. Every weapon that you can think of and can use in a battle is here."
I wanted to retort that nuclear warheads can be used in battle too, but I held back….
I couldn't help but notice a few cadets laughing at me. Even some main characters were also laughing.
But I don't understand! What's there to laugh about? It was a genuine question!
Tsk, damn these people!
Should I tell them that they all are merely some third-rate clichè novel characters?!
Hmph!
However, their laugh soon died down, and the whole weapon chamber fell silent as one of the cadets walked up to a weapon and stood in front of it.
The weapon that he was standing in front of was… a gun.
