Chronicles of Forgotten Extra

In a barren landscape, a black-haired monkey twirled his body and spun with intense focus.

Oh, wait—my bad.

That wasn't a monkey.

It was Alden who danced no better than a monkey.

He was drenched in sweat, his expression one of pure concentration, as if he were trying to crack some world-changing ancient code.

His movements… Well, "precise" wouldn't be the right word. More like a mess.

Beside him, Gretta stood, watching with an eye of harsh criticism. Her arms were crossed and her face filled with a frown of disapproval.

"Nu-uh, Alden," she said, shaking her head slightly. "You're doing it wrong again."

She demonstrated the steps herself, flailing—ahem—dancing with what she clearly believed was the peak of grace.

Alden watched closely.

His eyes were narrowed with focus as his brain worked overtime to analyse her movement.

Gretta's movements were… chaotic and erratic.

Devoid of any pattern whatsoever.

'Wait a second… Is that the secret?'

Gretta finished her "dance" and turned to look towards Alden with a proud smirk. "See? You need to make your movements as graceful as mine."

If a professional dancer had been present at that moment, they would have collapsed on the spot, vomiting blood from their mouth and dying in an instant.

"Yes, Ms Gretta," Alden nodded seriously, resuming his movements.

He tried to mimic her movements.

'Damn it. Why can't I still decipher the Chaos Art yet?'

He had spent the last few hours trying to analyse every step, every misplaced limb, and every unnatural twirl.

He was certain there was some hidden, ancient technique hidden in this madness.

And yet.

The result?

Nothing.

No secret technique.

No divine revelation.

Just the pain of trying to move his body unnaturally and the embarrassment he felt from those weird movements.

'It must be a high-level technique… too advanced for a weakling like me to understand easily.'

'Yeah, that must be it.'

With newfound determination, he pushed himself further.

Meanwhile, Gretta was watching him calmly.

Her hands were on her hips, completely oblivious to the grand misunderstanding she had created with her chaotic dance.

Gretta clapped her hands together, snapping Alden out of his focus.

"Alright, I think that's enough warm-up for now. Let's move on to real training."

Alden's heart pounded with excitement. 'This is it.'

'That wasn't the real Chaos art, that was just warm up and that's the reason why I couldn't decipher anything....'

'The real technique...'

'The real Chaos Art will finally reveal itself to me.'

Gretta took a deep breath, stretched her arms… and then began.

What followed could only be described as a horror to every professional dancer.

She spun like a malfunctioning robot.

Kicked her legs in directions that should not have been possible for ordinary human.

Spun her arms with the enthusiasm of a person being attacked by many bees.

Alden's jaw dropped.

'...I see. This must be some kind of test. A mental one.'

'She's pushing me to question my own understanding of balance, rhythm, and possibly reality itself.'

'Perhaps the Chaos art had something to do with understanding myself.'

'Only once I question myself will I understand the hidden techniques within these movements.'

Alden's misunderstanding was continuing to deepen.

She did a final pose before she came to a stop.

And thank God she did.

"Now you try." She grinned, looking at Alden's shocked face.

He swallowed hard.

He had faced monsters, death, and existential crisis before, but this… this was the real challenge.

Still, he was not a coward.

He steeled his mind and took a deep breath.

He tried to move his body to mimic the movements Gretta had showed him.

Just on the first step he tripped so hard over his own feet that his face planted itself into the ground.

"Alden, you're being too stiff. You need to feel the movements. Let your body flow like water."

"Dance is an art…. don't force it."

"Let it come naturally to you."

"Now, get up and do it again." Gretta sighed as she gestured to him to resume.

From the sidelines.

Biribri observed the scene with the patience of someone who had seen too much.

Alden groaned as he pushed himself up.

He would master this.

He had to.

After all, it wasn't just dancing.

It was Chaos Weapon Art.

...right?

Alden danced.

Well, "danced" was not the correct word.

His body moved in a way that suggested he had lost an argument with gravity.

Gretta watched.

Her face had a frown which was deepening with every passing second.

Biribri, on the other hand, had completely given up pretending.He covered his face with his hands as he kept peeking through his fingers as if watching some kind of disaster.

"No, no, no…" Gretta said, rubbing her temples as if she was having a very bad headache.

"You're moving like a puppet who has lost its strings."

"I am trying, Ms Gretta." Alden argued.

"Although it's still beginner level, maybe it's too much to be able to do that on the first day." She said.

"Well, don't worry, we'll take it slowly till you reach an advanced level."

'Advanced?' Alden thought. 'If this is just the beginner level, then what in the cosmic hells does the advanced stage look like?'

"Let's just work on basics for today," Gretta continued, crossing her arms.

Alden nodded.

He had long accepted that this was not going to be easy.

He had faced monsters before, but this was the first time he felt like he was the monster—specifically, the kind of monster people described in bad dancing memes.

And so, the first day ended with nothing more than sore muscles and crushed pride.

—

Five months later

Alden woke up in his room.

It had been five months since the first time he had entered this space.

This time had been uneventful, to say the least, filled with training, dance and rest only.

After learning he can't grow in ranks in this space, he tried to exercise most of the time to increase his stats.

But without mana, his stats barely grew, not even increasing by a single minor level.

He still trained his swordsmanship in the meantime to increase his mastery to make his movements more fluid and swift.

That bore good results as well.

Mixed with his training and the chaotic 'dance', his swordsmanship had become fluid and swift.

Today was the day.

He had finally mastered the chaotic dance steps.

Now he just had to show Gretta his mastery.

And he was sure he'd pass the trial.

He still couldn't find the technique hidden within the dance.

But he was sure Gretta would reveal that to him after he passed the trial.

There must be some specific mana circulation pattern which he was missing, probably.

Right?

_

In the same barren land, Alden danced in front of Gretta.

Biribri was also present there.

Alden twirled, spun, and finally landed with a controlled pose.

His movements were fluid, precise and, more importantly, chaotic.

He had finally managed to imitate the movements of Gretta after five months.

Gretta watched him with wide eyes.

Whereas Biribri, for once, was silent.

Alden stopped as he exhaled.

He looked at her expectantly.

She was the first to break the silence. "Huh?You finally did it."

"Although still not as graceful as me… it's still acceptable."

"He actually did it." Biribri nodded slowly, as if he still couldn't believe it.

"So… that means I've finally passed the trial. Please tell me the Mana circulation method now." Alden wiped sweat from his forehead with a confident smirk.

"What now?" Gretta's expression didn't change.

"I mean, I learnt the steps of Chaos art, and now…. uhm, if you reveal the mana circulation… only then would I be able to inherit it… right?" Alden said, now unsure due to Gretta's unchanging expression.

"What steps to Chaos art?" Gretta asked with a frown.

A moment of silence passed through them.

Alden looked at Gretta and she looked at him.

They both stared at each other in silence.

Alden broke the silence with hesitant question.

"Wasn't... wasn't the dance actually chaos art?" Alden asked.

"What are you talking about? That was just dance… and moreover, how could I teach Chaos art when I myself don't use it?"

The words hit Alden like a storm.

Alden froze.

'F*ck, then why the hell did I have to learn that f*cking dance?'

He cursed my mind, as he couldn't afford to do that in real life.

"Then what was the motive for learning the dance, Ms Gretta?" Alden asked, suppressing his anger but It was still evident in his voice.

Gretta let out a small cough and casually looked away.

Her eyes were darting all over the place.

"Well…uhm… It was to test your patience…. Yeah, that's it…" She spoke hesitantly.

But Alden immediately understood it was a lie, after all, he was not a stupid fool, and Gretta wasn't a good liar.

"Now, now…" Gretta clapped her hands to distract Alden, knowing he had caught her lie. "Now you can move on to the next step, where you'll find the real trial."

Alden didn't know there was only one trial, and the first trial was all made up by Gretta for her entertainment.

Her friend had only said that she could judge anyone to inherit the Chaos art. So she created this trial to make it entertaining for her.

But she didn't just teach this dance to anyone and only taught to those who she thinks are worthy to inherit the Chaos Art.

Poor Alden, who had mistaken the bad dancing skills of Gretta for secret chaos art, wasn't the first one, as all of the previous inheritors had also fallen for this scam….

Alden's left eye twitched.

And that was the day Alden learned the true lesson of Gretta's Academy.

It wasn't about dancing.

It was about suffering.

"Ok, kid, let me tell you about the real trial." Gretta said.

'F*ck I've been scammed.'