novelraw Chapter 97 : Rezi’s Trembling Adventure (1)
Chapter 97 : Rezi’s Trembling Adventure (1)
Chapter 97: Rezi’s Trembling Adventure (1)
“Orbification……?”
It was a type of magic whose very name felt unfamiliar.
“Yes, the magic I’m currently manifesting is Flewd Orbification. As for its effects…… it’d be better for you to feel it directly rather than hear an explanation. Try manifesting the strongest magic you can.”
Rezi immediately began manifesting magic.
Recently, he had become capable of manifesting and controlling not just fire, but even magma.
With that much confidence built up, this much felt trivial—or so he thought.
“……Huh?”
But the magic didn’t manifest.
No, more precisely, although he was clearly using mana, it felt as if the magic had lost even its form and turned transparent.
“Orbification is the act of maximizing and giving form to the inherent properties of each element. Under the influence of Flewd Orbification, you can’t manifest elemental magic other than Flewd. Just like you’re experiencing now.”
“What kind of ridiculously unfair magic is that?!”
“It’s magic at the level of the 9th Circle. That’s the level of the enemies we’ll be facing going forward. Of course, they won’t be Flewd…….”
As Vise continued explaining, he seemed to be growing increasingly strained, sweat beginning to bead heavily on his forehead.
“Wait, Head! You said you were originally 6th Circle! Then how are you manifesting a 9th Circle magic like Orbification?!”
“The potion I drank temporarily amplifies magical power. That’s why I didn’t want to drink it. Once I do, I’m unconscious for at least a week.”
“…….”
“Anyway, there are 2 minutes left now. If you can manifest even a tiny spark within 2 minutes, you pass the test. It’s getting hard to even talk, so hurry!”
“……Y-Yes!”
Rezi was a mage who followed Vise’s words absolutely.
So he tried to manifest magic while squeezing out every last ounce of strength he had, but instead of even a spark, it felt as though his mana was simply being sucked into that Orbification.
And so 1 minute passed, then all the way to 2 minutes.
In the end, Rezi failed to produce even a spark by the time limit.
Thud!
The moment the time limit ended, Vise’s Orbification vanished, and Vise collapsed on the spot.
“Head!”
“Haa…… haa…… the test…….”
Vise’s body trembled violently.
“P-passed…….”
Within his fading consciousness, he muttered the word “passed” and tried to raise his thumb.
“What do you mean passed?! I couldn’t even manifest a spark!”
“In…… a week…… I’ll explain…….”
Unable to finish what he wanted to say, Vise closed his eyes just like that.
Judging by appearances alone, it looked as though he had lost his life.
One week later.
Vise regained consciousness and woke up.
“Ggh…….”
The aftereffects of the magic amplification potion still hadn’t faded, and it felt as though someone was hammering inside his head.
Confirming that he had awakened, Rezi hurriedly embraced him and asked anxiously,
“Head! Are you okay?!”
“Water…… bring me some. My head feels like it’s going to split…….”
Only after gulping down the water Rezi brought did Vise’s headache ease slightly, allowing him to sit up.
“It really feels like I went to hell and back. This is why I hate drinking that stuff.”
He spoke while looking at the potion bottle he had drunk a week earlier, sitting in the corner of the basement.
To Vise, it was like a potion of death that sent chills down his spine just to look at it.
It was powerful enough to let a 6th Circle mage like him use 9th Circle magic, Orbification—but the price was just as brutal.
“Anyway. What was it I said before I collapsed?”
“You said, ‘In…… a week…… I’ll explain……,’ and then you just dropped.”
Rezi answered while mimicking Vise’s tone from back then.
Hearing that, Vise was finally able to recall the situation at the time.
“Ah, I said you passed, right?”
“Yes. You said I passed even though I couldn’t manifest a spark……”
“Of course you couldn’t manifest it. With Flewd Orbification floating there, how is an elementalist supposed to manifest magic? Even if Lord Arkis came back alive, that would be impossible.”
“Then why give a test like that…….”
“Well, it’s obvious. I wanted to see whether you’d give up or keep trying to the end. It’s a fight where lives are on the line—can I send someone who gives up halfway? Someone who’d get captured and get us all killed?”
“…….”
“Anyway, since you passed the test, I’ll assign you a mission.”
“Yes!”
At last, the day had come for his first official mission as a Sculptor.
Rather than worrying about what kind of mission it would be, Rezi was filled with confidence that he could carry out any mission perfectly.
“You know the Nohill Family, right?”
“Yes, the fire element composition family.”
“Turn that place into a wasteland. Destroy the family’s main residence.”
“……Pardon?”
For a moment, Rezi doubted his ears.
“What are you so surprised about? The Nohill Family is close to here. Go and turn it into a wasteland.”
“That sounds…… like you’re telling me to attack the Nohill Family?”
“Your hearing works just fine.”
“……I’m 6th Circle, you know. Ah!”
Snapping his fingers, Rezi asked back,
“I’m going with you, Head, right? That’s it, right?”
“…….”
But Vise merely looked at Rezi with a pitiful gaze.
“……Don’t tell me it’s just me?”
“Yep.”
“The head there is 7th Circle, isn’t he……? I’m 6th Circle.”
“What does Circle level matter? It’s about whether you know how to fight or not. The Nohill Family is the weakest among the fire element families. You should be able to handle it at your level.”
“No, but why are we suddenly attacking a perfectly fine Nohill Family?”
“Good grief…… you really have too much pointless curiosity.”
Left with no choice, Vise explained the reason they had to attack the Nohill Family.
“I told you before that Draco Tyrant extracts souls from students and uses them as materials.”
“Yes!”
“To do that, he needs potions, and to make those potions, he needs special herbs. And the Nohill Family is the one that offers those herbs as tribute to the Draco Family.”
“……What?”
This was something even Rezi hadn’t known.
“About a year and a half ago, by sheer luck, there was a mysterious explosion accident at the Nohill Family. Thanks to that, the herb fields disappeared—but we got information that they’ve been restored.”
“Then…… wouldn’t it be enough to just get rid of those herb fields?”
Bang!
Frustrated, Vise struck the back of Rezi’s head hard.
“Argh! Why are you hitting me again!”
“You idiot! If some stranger barges into your front yard trying to wipe out your herb fields, do you think they’d welcome him saying, ‘Welcome~.’? An all-out battle is inevitable.”
“……Then what if the Nohill Family head comes out?”
“He’ll definitely come out. It’d be strange if he didn’t.”
“You’re telling me to face the family head alone?”
“Yeah, you can do it. Decisively speaking, the Nohill Family head isn’t yet at the level of handling lava like you are.”
Once again, he doubted his ears.
No matter how much it was a composition family, he was still the head of a family—yet there was something he himself could do that the other couldn’t?
He wondered if that really qualified someone to be a family head.
“You look unconvinced. Do you know what Circle the Nohill Family head, Nohill Jick, was when he founded the family?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“Just 6th Circle. Does it make any sense for someone to get approval to become a family head at 6th Circle with a single element?”
At 6th Circle, it meant he had founded a family at the exact same Circle as Rezi himself.
Normally, approval to become a family head only began to be reviewed from the 7th Circle onward, so this was an extremely abnormal phenomenon.
“The secret was tributing herbs. It’s a family founded through shortcuts by harvesting and offering up herbs that originally only grow in the wild. Among the families we’ll be dealing with, they’re the weakest.”
“…….”
“Now do you get it? If you clash using pure mana alone, there’s no way you’d lose, so I’m sending you. Do you think I’d just send you off to die? How do you think I raised you?”
Vise’s words were rough, but Rezi knew there was sincere concern behind them.
Perhaps because of that, his confidence slowly began to rise.
“I’ll make sure your insurance is solid. Here, take this.”
This time, Vise handed him a potion bottle.
It was different from the potion Vise had drunk.
Inside was a blue liquid.
“What is this……?”
“A potion that temporarily turns you into a Double Caster. We call it Transcendental Water. If you drink it, you’ll be able to handle the Water Element as well. Drink it if things get dicey.”
The Nohill Family was a fire-element composition family.
If he could also wield the Water Element, Rezi would gain a huge advantage in terms of compatibility.
“But remember, that’s a last resort. Drink it only when you think you absolutely can’t win. Got it? The time you become a water-and-fire Double Caster is only 10 minutes. Within those 10 minutes, you must subdue the opponent and get as far away from the Nohill Family as possible.”
“And after 10 minutes…… what happens?”
“You’ll end up like me over the past week.”
It meant collapsing from the aftereffects.
“This is an operation Lord Ed Etar is also watching closely, so make sure you succeed and come back. If possible, I’d rather you didn’t drink that.”
Vise said this while patting Rezi on the shoulder.
“……Head.”
“Hurry up and go. You know where the Nohill Family is, right?”
After agonizing for quite some time, Rezi was finally able to steel his resolve only after getting smacked on the back of the head once more by Vise.
“This is an official order for you to recover your first sculpture. Move out.”
“Mo……ve out!”
Clutching the Transcendental Water Vise had given him tightly to his chest, Rezi set off toward the Nohill Family.
“Former.”
“Yes, Headmaster.”
“There are two things today. One is the day Sparkle conducts a closed-door special admission interview against Banshi in 2nd Class, and the other is…….”
“I’ve already heard as well. Teacher Rezi went to destroy the Nohill Family, didn’t he?”
“……Yes.”
“You must be very worried.”
“I am……. Very worried……. Because I don’t know where I should send you.”
“Pardon?”
Caught off guard by the unexpected answer, Former felt slightly flustered.
Today was the day of the duel between Banshi and Sparkle, with the special admission results on the line.
As expected, it was also the day Banshi would be expelled.
So she needed to be intercepted midway and temporarily diverted into 1st Class, but Rezi, who had been assigned a solo operation, was also a source of anxiety.
However, the only person who could move was Former.
Etar had no confidence at all about where to deploy Former.
“Hmm, I’ll stick with Rezi’s side.”
However, Former arrived at his answer rather simply.
“Why?”
“When you focus on life, the answer is surprisingly simple. Student Banshi…… even if she’s expelled, can be called back later.”
On the other hand, if Rezi failed this operation, he would go somewhere from which he could never be called back again.
“……I was thinking too much about myself.”
Just as Former said, when life was prioritized, the answer really was simple.
He had worried unnecessarily after growing greedy over Banshi as a future member of the Sculptors.
“Then, should I leave now?”
“Yes, watch his back closely. Step in if things really go wrong.”
“Don’t worry. It’s been a while since I drank this potion.”
Former took out a potion from his clothes.
It was the appearance-altering potion Vise had given him long ago.
Since it was a potion he only drank when acting as a Sculptor in the Underworld, it truly had been a long time since he last downed it.
After drinking the potion completely, Former’s belly swelled in an instant, and his arms grew to nearly three times their size.
“As always, this form never gets easier to get used to.”
Even his voice changed perfectly.
“Here.”
Etar handed him a pair of black horn-rimmed glasses.
“I’ll be off, Headmaster.”