Chapter 53
Chapter 53
Academy’s Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Chapter 53
Are you feeling okay? Like, does your head hurt or something?
Isis and Isabel stared at me with utter disbelief after hearing my words.
Giving instant feedback on someone else's magic was something any well-read mage could naturally do for juniors or students.
But they clearly never imagined a TA like mebarely older than them and infamous as a wastrelwould say something like that.
'Mages have zero trust in me.'
Lee Ji, Isabel, and Seong Yeon-hwa had all seen me wield my spear firsthand, so they gave me some credit.
But these girls, walking a different path from martial arts, still doubted my skills.
And they had good reason to.
Martial arts converged from all streams back to the sourcethere was always some common ground.
Magic was a different story.
Teaching spells that numbered in the hundreds or even tens of thousands depending on schools, majors, and specializations was no easy task.
Especially since Isis and Isabel each showed talent in ice and light magic, respectivelyfields utterly unlike my own.
My main focus was flame magic, with psychokinesis, incantations, and curses as side studies.
Nothing overlapped with theirs.
A typical professor would have washed their hands of it by now.
But teaching them was no problem for me.
Thanks to my trait, Magic Saint.
Cast your spells, and I'll give you immediate feedback.
Is that even possible? You'd need to be on Professor Nam Hwa-yeon's level, or at least Professor Emilia's.
It's subjective, sure, but I can spot the gaps. Don't underestimate me.
I waved them on, urging them to hurry up and cast already.
Isis and Isabel shot me suspicious glares.
But with nothing left to argue, they assumed their stances and drew up their mana.
Sky-blue, fierce mana and pure, pristine white mana enveloped them, respectively.
Isis, with her sky-blue mana, was the first to release it.
She extended her hand with a smooth motion, and incantations began forming letters and arrays, filling a circular framework.
As the circle brimmed with various runes, a fierce north wind blasted through the training room.
The wall-mounted spells immediately broke it down, but a chill still lingered in the air.
I could see the problem clear as day.
'She has zero control.'
I'd noticed it back in the valley, but Isis couldn't properly rein in her chill.
Her lack of control boosted the power and scale of her freeze spells, but fine control was a pipe dream.
Meanwhile, over here
What do you think of that? Got any nitpicks?
You're adjusting down to the individual photons?
The fact you spotted that means you're not talking complete nonsense? Still, you won't find any flaws in the magic Grandma refined for me. Not that there were any to begin with.
The moment Isis finished, Isabel snapped her fingers.
That alone made multiple rings intersect in the air, light pouring from each one.
The beams split into various strands, illuminating the floor.
Where they touched, the lights mixed colors to form intense lasers or turned to salt, showcasing a range of effects.
A spell that mixed light colors to trigger diverse outcomes.
'Impressive'
More precisely, was she handling the three primary colors of light?
Or the primal colors themselves?
Either way, it wasn't my expertise.
I'd read plenty of magic tomes, but none on light and color used incantations like hers.
Was this the protagonist's talent?
All I could do was admire it.
Her spells' raw power was below mine, but that was because Isabel focused on harmony and perfection over destruction or lethality.
Honestly, it might even surpass my Pyrokinesis.
No wonder my words sounded ridiculous to her.
Isabel's attitude wasn't arroganceit was simply justified confidence.
Still, with my talents, I could peek at her gaps.
[Magic Saint's talent is analyzing the trait North Wind Cold Snow.]
[Magic Saint's talent is analyzing the skill Sea of Photons (S).]
[This will take considerable time! Current progress: 0.7%.]
Talent alone wouldn't cut it, so I opened my eyes wide.
[Demon Eye opens fully to assist Magic Saint.]
[Ten-Li Eye embedded in Demon Eye observes multiple outcomes and derives results.]
[Progress surges!]
[Current progress: 27.9%43.2%74.1%.]
[Analysis of each trait and skill complete!]
Took about five minutes, give or take.
It went fast, but my body paid the price.
My eyes were bloodshot with burst vessels, my nose felt like it might gush blood any second, and fatigue screamed from every muscle.
I'd overdone it.
But the analysis was doneI could correct them based on this.
And one realization from it: I had no idea Isabel's efficiency was this high.
The difference between protagonist and extra, huh.
Isabel, hailed not just as a lead but a heroine, utterly dominated her peers in talent and skill.
Isis wasn't far behind, but closing the gap wouldn't be easy.
In my view, Isis's magic specialized in mass slaughter.
In a six-position party, a mage like her with heavy-hitting bursts would shinebut little else came to mind.
Isabel was different.
She handled massive spells like Isis's and intricate, precise work. Both geniuses, sure.
Isabel's magical prowess was just on another level.
'This is tricky. Our party's caster slot belongs to Isis, not Isabel.'
Still, persistent teaching would fix it.
With that in mind, I commented on Isis's spell.
Isis, your first priority seems to be freely controlling ice. Can't you fully master your trait?
I'll try minimizing it this time.
She floated the same incantation in the air.
Another frosty gale against the training room walls.
It was weaker than before, sure.
How's this? Good enough?
She turned to me, freezing the area around her as she spoke.
Can you shrink the scale even more?
Shrink the scale? Got it. I'll give it a shot.
Not reducing power, but compressing the scale.
That was my first assignment for Isis.
She seemed to sense something in my words and focused intently.
Now for this one.
Why are you staring like that? There's no way my Grandma-refined magic has any flaws.
No, it does.
Her spell had gaps.
I was certain.
But I didn't know exactly where or how yet.
I asked Isabel for time, and that day's lesson ended there.
* * *
Four days into serious training.
Mornings: prep lectures and handle duties. Afternoons: check students' progress, correct their form and technique one by one.
Then nights for devouring papers or magic tomes, and predawn solo magic drills in the training room.
Ow, my back. At this rate, my health's gonna break down
No real breaks, tight on sleep and meals.
I kept physiological needs minimal to avoid work issues, but the accumulating fatigue had no easy fix.
It's getting a bit more routine, though.
Prepping Professor Nam Hwa-yeon's lecture scripts sped up.
Overall efficiency rose across the board.
Teaching students was hitting its stridethey were picking it up smoothly on their own. Seemed all good.
But disaster loomedI could collapse anytime.
My mental fortitude handled all-nighters fine, but this paper-thin body was the issue.
With my terminal condition, pulling overtime daily was a miracle I hadn't keeled over yet.
Maybe Drug Resistance Body would build tolerance to overwork and fatigue. But the real problem was elsewhere.
Pain disrupts focus no matter how used to it I get.
Fatigue I could endure.
Pain wrecked my concentration even if I toughed it out.
Solar Vein Blockage heated my veins bit by bit, cooking me from inside.
The creeping sensation of burning or incineration death tugging at my lifeline wasn't pleasant. A normal person would've writhed on the floor screaming from the irregular agony hitting daily.
Small mercy: it didn't shorten my lifespan further.
'It's already as short as it gets.'
With so little time left, a bit more scorching wouldn't trim much. Whether to call that fortunate, who knew.
Definitely better than shortening it beyond what's left.
Pain's killing my reading focus.
Painkillers were iffy.
Resistance would build eventually.
I closed my eyes, enduring the gnawing ache.
Any good solutions?
'Drugs risk resistancemaybe hunt skills or hidden pieces instead?'
No practical ideas surfaced. Hell, maybe the bedridden half-cripple days were better.
Back then, death was knockingI did nothing.
Maybe study single-dose meds or herbs.
No good ideas hit.
Wait.
Herbs?
A sudden spark.
Why hadn't I thought of it?
Herbs. More precisely, toxic ones.
My Drug Resistance Body, incorporating Hundred Poisons Body, analyzed poisons and built tolerance and antibodies.
Used right, I could gain resistances and chase potent pain relief and stimulants from toxic plants treated as poisons.
Ordinary poisons won't cut it.
Needed ones so deadly a normal person would die just from touching their lips.
Like how excess medicine turns toxic.
Ultra-potent toxin herbs boasting deadly efficacy.
Only a few places handled those, from memory.
And conveniently, one was right outside the grounds.
Decision made, I prepped to head out.
'Hope I don't run into the kids on the way.'
I thought as I slipped on my shoes.
Not a place I could stroll into openly, so nerves hit naturally.
And whenever I got like this, I'd bump into them outside.
Intuition screamed it.
Loud and clear.