novelraw Chapter 96 : A New Test (4)
Chapter 96 : A New Test (4)
Chapter 96: A New Test (4)
While we were continuing dinner without any issues, Hei spoke to me.
“Artel, sorry for getting irritated earlier.”
An apology that came completely out of the blue.
Honestly, I wasn’t even sure what he was apologizing for being irritated about.
“What?”
“I’m apologizing for asking why you were being so impatient.”
“Ah, that. But why all of a sudden? You look like you found some confidence.”
“Yeah, I was reading a book with Kiena at the training grounds, and I started feeling like I could do it.”
“Really? Did something come to mind?”
“Not yet, but I’m going to start looking now. There are still eight months left, so that’s plenty of time, right?”
It was a good thing I left him with Kiena for a bit.
To be honest, I hadn’t expected this much when I left him there.
Anyway, since he’d regained his confidence, a spark of hope had been lit—that he might be able to move up to 6th Class by the end of this year.
We finished our meal like that, and the moment I returned the used dishes to the designated place—
A female student with long white hair blocked my path.
She was a bit taller than me, so I had to lift my gaze slightly to meet her eyes.
“Hi?”
For a moment, I wondered if she was really greeting me, so I looked around to check.
“I’m talking to you, you know?”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you.”
A sudden greeting from a student.
No, come to think of it, I’d already experienced something like this back in 1st Class.
Banshi had approached me when I was alone in the library.
I carefully looked over the female student’s appearance again.
Like the Wind Element student Hei said was pretty earlier, this student was also quite beautiful.
The difference between the two was that this one had long hair, and her uniform didn’t cling tightly to her body.
Still, the fact that she had a doll-like appearance was undeniable.
Hei must have been jealous of that, because he looked at me with a slightly envious gaze.
“So?”
“I heard you’re a double caster. That true? Judging by your hair, it seems like it.”
“So?”
“Fire and Darkness.”
“Can’t you tell just by looking?”
“You’re really prickly. Fire Element students were usually kind. Is it because you’re mixed with Darkness Element?”
What is this, some kind of background check?
I had no idea why she was suddenly creating an interview-like atmosphere here.
“My name is Reina. I’m a Light Elementalist.”
She answered kindly and held out her hand to me.
“I’m Artel.”
“I see. Artel, can I ask you a favor?”
“What is it.”
“I researched a Light Element spell, and I want to know how it performs against Darkness Element. There weren’t any Darkness Element students in 5th Class. But you happen to be a double caster?”
The reason for her kindness was simply that she wanted to use me as an experiment subject.
“Judging by your hair and eye color, you don’t seem to match my level, but I guess I have no choice but to ask you as a substitute. Right?”
Just look at this sly student?
She pretended to be nice, but she subtly looked down on people.
‘Alfric got scolded by me for this too.’
It was a chronic problem of the Light Element.
Russel had been like that starting from Class 0.
The problem was that they thought they were the best in the world.
Reina was predicting that my synchronization rate would be low just by looking at my hair color.
“Seems more like you won’t match my level.”
“Oh, really?”
She didn’t say that sincerely either—it was sarcasm.
“If you’re that curious, why don’t you speak with magic? They say mages speak with magic.”
“Fine! Let’s go to the duel arena together.”
It was a good opportunity for me too.
Apparently, excluding summoners, the student ability evaluation for elementalists was about creating one’s own magic.
Since I could gauge the average level of 5th Class, there was no reason to refuse.
Besides, starting from 5th Class, there were no points involved and no official duel arena system, so there was no burden anyway.
Just as I was about to head to the duel arena following Reina—
“Reina, can I come watch too?”
A male student with white hair asked.
‘There were two Light Element students.’
“Yeah, of course.”
Reina made the decision on her own without asking my opinion.
“Reina! What about me? Can I come watch too?”
This time, it was a male student of the Earth Element who had nothing to do with this.
“Anyone who wants to watch, come watch. Right? You don’t mind, do you, Artel?”
‘You already gave permission to everyone on your own, and now you’re pretending to be considerate?’
Since her synchronization was at quite a high level, Alfric kept coming to mind.
“I don’t mind.”
The 5th Class duel arena was a bit different.
First of all, inside the wide duel arena, there were rectangular magic circles placed at regular intervals.
When Reina stood in front of one of the magic circles, spheres representing each element floated up.
It was a sight I was seeing for the first time too.
“I’ll choose Darkness Element. I need to check what kind of power it shows in a compatible matchup.”
Then, when she lightly tapped the Darkness Element sphere, the rectangular magic circle shifted and formed a Darkness-Favored Duel Arena.
‘In 3rd Class, it was portals, but here it’s a selection device like this.’
The higher the class, the more fascinating things there were.
If you asked whether it was practical, my answer would be ‘well,’ though.
As darkness spread over the rectangular magic circle we were standing on, Reina stepped inside.
When I followed her in, Reina stood at a fixed distance from me.
“By the way, how much of the Darkness Element can you manifest? Our levels need to match to some extent.”
“Well…… something like this?”
I deliberately manifested Dark Space toward Reina.
It was Dark Space using Tap-Taking as well.
“Hey, not something like this.”
Flash!
But Reina very simply erased my Dark Space.
‘Hmm, she seems to have her fundamentals pretty well down.’
I wasn’t particularly surprised, since it was magic I’d tried manifesting at the level of a warm-up myself.
“Offensive magic, I mean. Want to try attacking me once? If you came up from 3rd Class, your Tap-Taking should be at a decent level, right?”
“Like this?”
This time, it was a Wave.
A Wave imbued with sincerity.
The Wave struck Reina’s body and pushed her back several meters.
“…….”
After briefly showing a flustered expression, Reina shook her head.
“That’s only 3rd Circle level. A 5th Circle level spell. Don’t you have anything like that?”
‘So she was the type of student obsessed with Circles.’
The type who believed that magic with a higher Circle was unconditionally stronger.
“And you, who got pushed back by something at 3rd Circle level? From where I’m standing, it looks like you should retake classes from 3rd Class.”
“…….”
At times like this, the best solution was to scratch their pride a little.
As expected, the effect was immediate.
“Fine, whatever. But don’t blame me if you get hurt.”
As if there was any reason for me to get hurt by you.
I gestured for her to hurry up and show the magic she had developed.
Reina puffed out her chest proudly, and bright light began gathering in front of her chest.
Lights starting to converge.
The light soon turned into a sphere, and once she had gathered as much as she wanted, Reina shoved the sphere forward with both palms.
A straight beam of light then shot toward me at high speed.
I immediately blocked Reina’s manifested magic with a Wave.
The two spells collided in midair.
Like a tug-of-war, Reina’s beam and my Wave swayed back and forth before finally exploding and disappearing.
“Mm, nice!”
With a self-satisfied expression, she asked triumphantly,
“Isn’t this pretty amazing? It showed this much power even in a Darkness-Favored Duel Arena.”
Well, from my perspective, it didn’t seem like it.
Once our exchange of magic ended, the students watching burst out with a chorus of “Ooh!”
‘Is that really something to be so amazed by.’
“You said your name was Reina, right?”
“Yeah. The magic I developed is pretty good, right?”
What grated on my ears was that this student kept saying she had ‘developed’ it.
“Isn’t this copied magic rather than something you developed?”
“……What?”
Confusion began to surface on Reina’s face.
It meant she already knew that magic like this existed.
“This is Breath. A spell that all elements have. Like this.”
This time, using the Light Element, I demonstrated the exact same magic Reina had just used.
“…….”
Breath was a 6th Circle level spell.
This 5th Circle student had somehow figured out a spell one level higher, then put on a show to deceive everyone as if she had developed it herself.
“This isn’t something you call ‘developed.’ You call this copying. I thought it was something special.”
I really thought things might be a little different starting from 5th Class.
Sincerely.
But looking at Reina standing across from me, there was nothing different.
Just pulling off this half-baked scam to get into 6th Class.
It was enough to make even my brief expectations feel hollow.
“…….”
Reina lost her words and could only glare at me with a stiffened expression.
If she said something like, “How do you know that magic!” here, it would be the same as admitting she was scamming people, so she seemed to be holding back those words as much as possible.
“You…… you secretly watched me practice, didn’t you?”
Unbelievable.
Now she was playing dumb.
She really seemed to believe firmly that she had developed it herself.
“Seriously. I came to 5th Class today—when would I have had time to spy on you, you idiot.”
Having lost all will to deal with her, I turned my back and left the duel arena.
Perhaps conscious of the surrounding gazes, Reina hurriedly fled as well, sprinting past me as if escaping.
And so, the first day of 5th Class came to an end with a rather ridiculous happening.
A tavern in the Underworld.
As usual, Rezi was cleaning the tavern as night slowly fell.
“Rezi.”
“Yes, Boss.”
Vise, who had apparently just woken up as well, rubbed his eyes as he stood up and came into the tavern.
“How long has it been since you started training under me?”
“Well, about a year and a half now.”
“There’s something I want to check, so come down to the basement. We’ll be closing the shop for a while.”
“……Pardon? Why?”
“This place doesn’t get any customers anyway. What’s the big deal about closing for a bit? Stop complaining and come down quickly.”
Vise went down to the basement first.
Rezi hurriedly put away the cleaning tools and followed after him.
“Let’s check it. Whether you’re at a level that can be deployed on a mission, or not.”
“……A mission? Does that mean I’ll finally be assigned to an official mission as a Sculptor?”
Rezi asked back, delighted.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself. You have to pass this test before deployment is decided.”
After replying, Vise took out a potion from his bosom and opened the lid.
“Hmm, this is something I should avoid using if possible. The aftereffects are severe.”
Saying that, he downed the entire potion and let out a sigh.
“Alright, the test begins. Stay sharp.”
Vise immediately focused his mind and began forming a massive white sphere in the center of the basement.
The white sphere, which had started out as a small pebble, gradually swelled in size like a balloon, soon becoming as large as if the moon had appeared right before their eyes.
“……Head of the family, just what in the world is this magic?”
It was magic Rezi had never seen even once in his life.
A spell so powerful that just looking at it made one lose the will to fight.
No, was Vise really a mage capable of this?
Was this the average ability of the heads of families?
Such questions naturally arose.
“This is called Orbification.”