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ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 646: Manpower Versus Humanpower, Which Is Better? Part 1

Being highly educated. It is the sign of one’s status in real life, displaying that one is cut above all the others.

Being highly educated. It means that one is smart, being able to utilize one’s intelligence in ways that normal people would never think of, achieving one’s goals faster and way more efficiently.

And finally being highly educated means that one is doing exceptionally well on all sorts of written tests and exams, putting one’s academic prowess on full display for everyone’s around them to see.

Yes, being highly educated is very similar to being strong in battle. You train hard to achieve the levels in your respective field that will allow you to stand at the absolute top, and once you get there you just feel like having to show it off to everyone around you.

And right now, for some unexplainable reason I was feeling the urge to study really hard so that I would be able to flex on some people.

「Hey, Professor, this question is related to gemstones! It asks about the magical composition of gems! What the hell!? I thought that all gemstones were pretty much ore-based!?」

「No, you see, that’s actually a common misconception that a lot of people tend to make unless they delve deeper into the subject. Sure, there are some ore parts in there for a good measure, but they are mostly magic-based. It might feel like cheating a little bit, but here, let me explain in some more detail……」

「Ahh, so in reality gemstones are basically a side product of various magical processes happening naturally in the world? For a game such as this a statement like that certainly feels confusing, I’m not gonna lie.」

「Bansai-kun, did you have a read through the materials related to the Diversion of Mana Theory that I showed you earlier? You see, the thing about mana particles naturally occurring in the environment is that when it interferes with nature such earth, rocks, trees and plants……」

「You are referring to the page one hundred twenty five of said report, aren’t you? And yes, I am sure that the main point of interest here is the series of underground magical processes that are taking place at all times, without us eve realizing it. By the way, Professor? I wanted to use that opportunity to ask you something. What happened to Sate-san? Wasn’t she involved with that Mirei-san and the Orchestra verification process?」

「She said that she is really sorry about this, but do to some personal circumstances she would not be able to play the game for the whole day and attend any of our previously determined activities.」

「Ahh, well, I guess it’s that time once more, huh? But talk about an unfortunate timing, indeed. I must admit that I also did surprisingly little studies on my own, but during the tests and exams I did not happen to make that many mistakes, so it should all be without an issue at this rate.」

「It’s always a huge relief to see that there are people in your close circle who are so reliable when push comes to shove. I am really happy with that state of affairs.」

For the time being, even though it was not really that great of a scenario to be a part of, the members of the “Library” joined our little entourage, all because our current task relied heavily on the academic side of this game, a thing that was not our greatest suit, to be perfectly honest. Also, the speed at which we were all breezing through the questions after the Professor and his companion joined up could only be described with one single word: astounding. It was honestly quite frightening to see us go like that after only two people joined in.

Perhaps those guys already managed to complete their own capture charts way earlier, before they even came down here from the first layer of Behemoth. Or maybe it was just that the present members of “Library” simply divided their chores amongst themselves and each went their own merry way to investigate and look for materials. So it might even be just a coincidence that we managed to meet those two in here right now? I guess that what you get when your Guild has so many member behind their belt and you can cover way more ground that needs to be thoroughly investigated.

「W-Whoa! No matter how you look at it, it can only be described as amazing……!」

「Seriously though, we wouldn’t even be able to try and imitate this if we wanted to. We wouldn’t even cut close……」

「Yes, I…… I agree wholeheartedly……」

Then we went on to investigate the test paper windows that were assign to each and every one of us by the “Ivory”. It took us a moment to arrive at the conclusion that each appear consisted of fifty different questions, and when you had about three hundred questions presented before yourself, none of them actually doubled or turned out to be the same question but worded differently. Now, when faced with a task like that, it is best to leave those things to the actual experts, so I turned towards the Professor and asked him with a huge smile on my face: “Would you guys like to do the honors here and tackle all of those three hundred questions”?

I may have been trying really hard here to take advantage of the “Library”, but it’s not like I’m doing something wrong or unfair, isn’t it? I mean, when you ultimately get down to it, those guys are trying their best to unravel all the truth and illuminate all the mysteries of this world. They are not merely observing, they want to “understand” as well, so taking part in a test like that and answering as many questions as possible should be right up their alley, wouldn’t you all agree?

「No, I mean seriously, this! What the hell is this!? When I come to the world of fantasy with swords, magic and Sci-Fi elements, I want to experience my swords, my magic and my Sci-Fi elements, not looking at some stupid, brain-dead anatomical charts! That’s what the real world is for!」

「Hmm, I knew it. I thought that we might learn something more about this whole Mana Theory in here, but some crucial bits and pieces of information seem to be missing. Missing, or it might be that they were being left out on purpose. Leviathan was already a disappointment in that regard, but this here is also quite saddening. I guess we are still missing some of the most crucial intel to be able to arrive at the final conclusion.」

「Just by looking at the author’s name is already making me feel like this is going to be so promising…… This here is basically like a treasure trove filled with flavor texts! However, there is one thing that bothers me…… Often times, there is a name “Setsuna of the Distant Past” that appears in those text. Is that some sort of an NPC? Or maybe a monster of some sort?」