The Magic Armament Compatibility Test (Part 2)
Now that they had their artificial mana stones, all that remained was to face the test.
Led by Junon, the students who had succeeded one after another in crafting their stones arrived at Mizar Hall, unable to contain their soaring excitement.
What greeted them, however, was icy hostility.
"What are unqualified freeloaders doing snooping around here?"
"Unqualified? By what standard?"
"What, are you really so stupid someone has to spell out what you need to bring to the Magic Armament Compatibility Test?"
"Guess rock bottom has a basement after all. Typical—the 'weakest vanguard' living down to his name!"
Bwahaha!
The male student blocking the way, along with a flock of peers who had just finished testing, burst into scathing laughter.
Too bad for them. Their little laugh was about to get cut short.
"Oh? You mean this 'required material'?"
Junon held up the stone.
"...Y-You, where did you get that—!"
"Are you so stupid that someone needs to spell out where I got my materials? Ah, pardon me. Let me correct myself—you lot."
The aristocrat who had just babbled about rock bottom scowled ferociously, looking ready to throw a punch if another word was spoken. But with so many onlookers watching, a few stifled snickers rippled through the crowd.
Too bad for him. Regardless of where they thought these mana stones came from, Junon and his group were fully entitled to take the compatibility test.
"Unless you bought the whole hall, move aside."
"..."
Junon shoved past the towering obstructions, and the students from the lower classes followed naturally behind his back. Without intending to, he had taken the lead, carving a path straight through the bottleneck.
Were those guys the last of them?
The testing hall, which should have been bustling, was surprisingly deserted—evidently, most of the other students had already cleared out.
Seeing the new arrivals, an instructor stepped forward to inspect them.
"Hmm. Artificial mana stones?"
"Yes, sir. Crafted with Professor Dahlia's permission."
"Well, as long as you have mana stones, it makes no difference to me. Come in, one at a time."
Following the supervisor's directions, they took their places one by one. In an instant, transparent barriers enclosed each individual cubicle.
When their bodies were locked into place, the flustered freshmen squirmed in confusion, while some upperclassmen looked on with fond nostalgia, thinking, Ah, I was like that once too.
"Since we have freshmen present, I'll explain beforehand. For safety reasons, your bodies are immobilized during the evaluation. This is simply to provide an environment where you can maintain maximum concentration, so do not panic."
Only then did the bewilderment clear from the freshmen's faces as understanding set in.
"Manifesting a magic armament demands absolute concentration above all else. Second to that is the self-restraint to recognize your own limits and stop. If you ignore this and cause harm to your body, you will be barred from ever setting foot here again. Bear that in mind."
Shortly after the instructor's stern caution, Junon's vision went dark.
"It's been a while."
Floating alone in an empty void of pure consciousness. Having challenged the magic armament manifestation test countless times in the past, the sensation was intimately familiar.
"Now then..."
With a mixture of anticipation and anxiety, he placed his hand upon the mana stone.
Meanwhile, as the sensory-deprived students walked their isolated paths in pursuit of manifestation, a prominent figure arrived.
"Mmm. It seems the Magic Armament Compatibility Test is underway."
"Wh-What? That's—!"
The instructors rushed over in a flurry, bowing deeply. The man striding smoothly through their ranks was someone no one living in the Principality could fail to recognize.
"Greetings, Your Grace the Grand Duke!"
"No need for such formality. Here, I am merely the Chairman of the Academy."
Though he spoke with easy grace, considering the Grand Duke's status as the de facto monarch of the realm, no one dared treat him as a simple chairman.
"May we... boldly ask what brings you here today, Your Grace?"
"For some reason, I felt inclined to observe the students experiencing magic armament manifestation today. They are the blossoming buds of our future, are they not?"
"Ah... of course..."
The Grand Duke ascended to the upper viewing gallery, which overlooked the testing chamber below. Through the glass, each student sat enclosed behind transparent barriers, striving to manifest their armaments in their own ways.
Among them, the Grand Duke's gaze fixed upon a single youth.
That must be him.
With such distinctive features, he was hardly difficult to spot.
And before long, that very boy became the first among them to open his eyes.
"Oho... On the outside he appears ordinary enough, but what lies within seems to be another matter entirely."
The Grand Duke intended to examine closely why Ophelia had kept such an individual concealed.
"Damn it...!"
The mana I had funneled into the stone bounced straight back out. A failure.
"Seriously stubborn as hell."
I knew the answer.
Whether it was a naturally formed mana stone or an artificially synthesized one, the fundamental mechanism for manifesting a magic armament was identical: stir the raw mana and refined mana suspended within the stone into harmony, and draw them into the body. Once that was achieved, the magic armament would manifest on its own.
The catch was that it was anything but simple.
"Phew... Is this the tenth time already?"
Anyone hearing the theory alone would nod and brush it off. Just blend the mana and pull it in, right? Occasionally, some prodigies actually spoke that way—but I was no prodigy.
It felt as if I were forcing two completely immiscible substances together. One was thick and viscous, barely flowing, while the other was slick, fluid, and light. Yes—it felt exactly like trying to blend water and oil.
Mix water and oil? Racking my brain over how to pull that off made my head spin.
Then again, manifesting a magic armament, alongside the awakening of unique magic, formed the two greatest pillars of growth. It was never meant to be easy. Having failed tens and hundreds of times before regression, a setback like this was hardly enough to shatter my resolve.
"Whew... Let's take a breather."
Rushing it would only ruin what was meant to work. Besides, pushing recklessly risked mana exhaustion; taking measured breaks was essential.
While waiting for my mana circulation to stabilize, I sifted through my past memories.
How did other people succeed in manifesting their armaments?
Most said they hammered their magic into it until it popped into being, or that they wrapped their mana around it the way they swung a weapon. The common thread was that to anyone listening, it made zero sense.
I remembered hearing a saying long ago:
Manifesting a magic armament is an achievement attained only when you become more familiar with yourself.
Most students had tilted their heads at that. I had once scoffed at it too, dismissing it as complete nonsense.
Curiously enough, unlike me, everyone who actually succeeded in manifesting an armament nodded along and agreed that the saying was spot-on. So the core truth of it wasn't wrong.
"Become more familiar with yourself, huh..."
Still bafflingly obscure. You know your own body best, yet sometimes the way others see you reflects your truest self. Demanding that you "know thyself" like Socrates didn't help one bit.
"Hah..."
Frustration weighed heavy on my chest.
The nobility had gritted their teeth and hoarded every mana stone on the market specifically to reap the rewards of this test. Their goal was glaringly obvious: the utter ruin of the vanguard and support roles.
Though we had thwarted the riot at the banquet during the third semester of second year, that had merely been a preventative inoculation. The true despair wrought upon academy students by high-ranking nobles was set to happen today.
If events unfolded unchanged, the vanguards and support casters would walk the exact same doomed path as my previous life. Unlike a vaccine, this crisis required an immediate cure, or the damage would be irrevocable.
The Second Underachiever Riot.
In the past timeline, it all began when not a single student from the lower classes managed to manifest a magic armament during this very test.
Artificial mana stones were inferior to natural ones, inherently affecting the manifestation process. Because the ratio of refined mana was significantly lower, coaxing an armament into being demanded far more finesse.
Being able to attempt the test at all had been a blessing, but the heightened difficulty was the real trap.
Without a magic armament, stepping onto a battlefield was no different from fighting unarmed. For roles that relied heavily on armaments, the crushing pressure was suffocating.
And fueling the flames of that pressure was the ruthless mockery of the nobility.
Having tasted a glimmer of hope through the artificial stones only to be cast back into the abyss, the underachievers' spirits shattered completely.
Overwhelmed by fury, they cursed the test itself, stormed nearby Dubhe Hall, and barricaded themselves inside. The administration and faculty tried to mediate and coax them out, but to no avail. Left with no choice, they moved in with force—which caused the panicked students to mishandle hazardous materials stored inside Dubhe Hall. The disaster resulted in widespread demonic energy poisoning and the total collapse of the building.
It would have been wonderful if Renias stepped in to resolve this as she had before, but this time was fundamentally different.
On the surface, this tragedy stemmed from the helplessness of the lower-class students. Leaning on someone else's intervention was ultimately borrowed strength. Accepting help under the guise of benevolence would only cement the narrative that we could never change on our own.
Therefore... the only path left was to prove with my own hands that manifestation was possible. To show that we vanguards and supporters could do it too.
"Right. This is something I have to solve myself. There's nowhere left to run."
I had never succeeded before, but this time, failure wasn't an option.
Steel steeling my resolve, I drew two steady breaths and took hold of the mana stone once more.
Think. Gather every keyword together.
◈ A magic armament manifests when mana is drawn from the stone, absorbed into the body, and the resulting oversaturated mana is expelled once more.
◈ A mana stone contains a delicate ratio where refined mana and raw, unrefined mana coexist.
◈ Like water and oil, these two immiscible manas maintain a stone's solid form only when held in precise balance.
◈ If external mana disrupts this ratio, a demonic mana surge—a Splash Out—occurs.
The first was the widely accepted academic theory of manifestation.
...Yet that alone wasn't enough. It offered no real breakthrough.
The rest were simply the innate properties of mana stones.
"The only difference is that I'm using an artificial mana stone... but an artificial stone shouldn't be an exception either. After all, it's created by forcefully injecting a human's refined mana into a dense clump of demonic energy to balance the ratio."
...Wait. What did I just say? An artificial mana stone?
No, not that. What came after...!
"Forcefully injected to balance the ratio...?"
Something flickered at the edge of my mind, tantalizingly close yet just out of reach. It felt as though adding a single missing piece would bring me right to the fundamental nature of the magic armament.
And in that exact moment, a familiar voice flashed across my thoughts.
The advice Professor Jake had given to help me.
...Yes. This was it.
The mana surging through my veins began to seep into the crystalline mass.
The process was infinitely meticulous and delicate. Yet, at the same time, profoundly familiar.
It must have been the same for everyone else.
Those who claimed their armament appeared after hammering in familiar spells.
Those who channeled mana into the stone with the same motion they used when slicing down beasts with a blade.
In the end, everyone had simply channeled their power through their most instinctive, unconscious habits.
That was why everyone who succeeded looked back and wondered how something so simple had stumped them. Breathing comes naturally without thinking about every exhale, doesn't it? By the same principle, the method one used most instinctively was inevitably the one that fit their body best.
It seemed absurdly simple in hindsight, but the answer was to stimulate and draw in the stone's mana using whatever technique one excelled at most.
So, what was my greatest specialty?
Before the regression and now, it had never changed: injecting foreign mana, destabilizing the target's circuits, and severing their magic before it could take shape.
Anti-Cast.
Shhh.
The mana stone turned completely transparent as though hollowed out, while mana surged through my body and resonated outward with a deep, vibrating hum.
Finally, I was reminded once more of what I truly excelled at.
And yet...
"What... is this?"
Something was off.
They say the initial manifestation of a magic armament takes the form of your most optimized weapon. That was why everyone tested their equipment compatibility beforehand.
If that held true, what manifested before me shouldn't have been any of the weapons that yielded a miserable 0.1% compatibility, but a shield—which had surpassed 30%.
"It's... not a shield?"
Something bizarre had coalesced right before my eyes.
Along with an astonishing figure:
"Ah, welcome, Professor Jake. Looks like you've been off having some fun."
"...I wasn't having fun, Your Grace. I was evaluating the students' magic armaments."
"Hahaha! Same difference, isn't it? Leaving that aside, must drinking buddies really use such stiff titles?"
"..."
"Fine, fine. I shall settle for 'Your Grace' for now."
The Grand Duke greeted Professor Jake with a hearty chuckle.
"Did you not experience the same bewilderment when you first manifested your armament? Wondering by what bizarre principle the mana was being absorbed?"
"Naturally. I stumbled quite a bit myself back then."
"Mm, quite so. Very few realize that one must synchronize the ratio inside the mana stone with their own body's internal ratio before absorbing it. It stems from the theoretical paper your wife published, so there are hardly many who could grasp it anyway."
No matter how brilliant an instructor or how prodigious a talent, theories surrounding magic armaments and unique magic had always remained largely speculative.
Even though Denise had published a mountain of academic papers and proposed the theory closest to the truth, it was far too complex for ordinary students to understand.
In reality, even if they heard the theory, most failed to make sense of it. Knowing one's internal ratio from indices was one thing, but how could someone replicate that exact ratio within a mana stone?
Because it was so difficult, it required an epiphany—and only those who achieved that epiphany succeeded in manifesting an armament.
"So, I must ask—how many minutes did it take you back then?"
"Well... by internal perceived time, it took me roughly twenty-five minutes."
"Oho. That is remarkably fast. Easily within the top three percent—no, the top one percent."
"...You flatter me, Your Grace."
Twenty-five minutes was an extraordinary record, one that would make anyone gasp in admiration.
And yet...
"Then what tier of genius does that student down there belong to—the one who manifested his armament even faster than you?"
"...?"
Puzzled, Professor Jake followed the Grand Duke's pointing finger.
No way...!
His eyes went wide as saucers at the clear view of pitch-black hair.
In this academy, a student with black hair could only be one person.
Seeing his student—who had manifested a magic armament at an unprecedented speed, blinking in confusion as he looked around—Jake completely forgot he was standing before the Grand Duke, his jaw dropping wide open.