Chapter 34
Chapter 34
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: Roan's Challenge
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“Won’t you do it?”
The man was blatantly provoking him, twitching his eyes from the front.
Roan thought as he looked at him.
How did things end up like this?
‘……I buttoned the first button wrong.’
Everything was his own mistake.
The day they first met in the library and exchanged words. Roan had underestimated him from that moment on.
That underestimation led to his repeated defeats, and now he was at the point of being faintly ignored.
However, honestly, he felt wronged.
Anyone who went through that situation would have judged the same way.
‘All he had was slightly unusual mana.’
No special magical knowledge or reactions. Excluding his peculiar mana, there was nothing outstanding about the man.
So who could have thought such a man would achieve far superior results than him in the evaluation?
He felt wronged.
And this spar was a chance to resolve that grievance and solidify his position anew.
‘……I am Roan Bilgeff.’
Roan closed his eyes tightly and recalled who he was.
The academy’s top student.
The rising star of the academy.
The pride of the Bilgeff family.
And the once-in-a-generation genius mage.
That was him.
Therefore.
When he opened his closed eyes, Roan’s expression was bright.
“Fine. Let’s do it, the spar.”
He hated to admit it, but that man’s magical talent was truly monstrous.
However, if asked whether that decided the outcome of this spar, the answer was no.
Roan had his honed magical knowledge and experience.
Roan predicted himself as the winner of this spar.
“Cool, I like that.”
Seeing Yoo Han smile, Roan spun the practice wand once.
“We’ll settle what we couldn’t in the evaluation here.”
“Was that still unsettled? I thought I won.”
As if responding to Yoo Han’s provocation, chilly ice spears floated behind Roan.
***
The ice spears came charging.
Last time, as allies, he thought they were decent spells, but facing them directly, they were incredibly powerful.
If he relaxed even a little, he might end up skewered.
Shrieeek! Thud!
“Whew…….”
He caught his breath, watching the ice spear barely miss and embed into the ground.
“……Dealing with a mage is definitely tiring.”
“You say that like you’re not a mage.”
“My style’s a bit different.”
As I kicked off the ground, Roan let out a faint smile.
Thud!
The distance closed in an instant.
He’d felt it fighting the Valefor kin, but against mages, closing in was still the best.
“Hup!”
Kaboom!
An attribute orb shot from the practice wand at close range exploded near Roan.
It was blocked by Roan’s barrier, which boasted the same high completion as his ice spears.
However, the real attack I was aiming for was something else, so no regrets.
“It’ll hurt a bit.”
“This……!”
Realizing a magic circle had appeared under his feet, Roan tried to throw himself aside.
But.
‘Too late.’
He couldn’t dodge with such slow movements. Unless he ran electricity through his body like me.
Seeming to realize it, instead of diving, he swung his wand.
Whoosh! Shoooo!
At the same time, a chilling cold enveloped Roan’s surroundings.
The cold clashed with the flame magic, turning into white smoke that spread everywhere.
Fwoooosh!
Of course, Roan couldn’t block the flame magic with cold he conjured in that short time. It was just buying a moment.
However, that seemed to be Roan’s goal.
Before the flame magic could touch Roan’s body.
Tzzzzz!
The magic circle shattered harmlessly.
Roan had dismantled the flame magic.
Just like I had dismantled the slicked-back man’s magic before.
‘……Impressive, as expected.’
He knew the guy was skilled, but he was even better than thought.
‘Dismantling magic in that split second?’
Could I have done it?
Honestly, he wasn’t confident.
That showed Roan’s exceptional understanding of magical formulas.
‘So that’s why he didn’t dismiss physical training lightly?’
I shook off the thought and focused on my senses.
Vision limited by the smoke now.
But that was good. A sudden attack now couldn’t be blocked, even by Roan with his superior magical understanding.
‘Speed is my advantage. Go all in.’
That’s when.
Peeeng!
White smoke parting, the sound of air slicing reached his ears.
And what appeared before his eyes.
“……!!”
An ice spear generated without warning.
It was charging straight at him.
At the same time.
Crackle!
Intense cold hit, and ice rose from the ground, encasing both his legs.
Thud! Thud! Thud……!
Danger.
Even knowing it was practice wand magic, his heart was screaming wildly.
Danger.
The ice spear was already at his nose, but his legs were frozen, immobile.
His mind went blank.
That was the moment.
‘…….’
The surrounding crackling noises stopped, and his muscle cells awakened one by one.
As if time had slowed.
Right, they said you feel this when extremely focused. It was true.
‘I can dodge.’
Crackle!
Electricity surged through his body as he snapped his waist back and head.
Instinctual movement.
Swoosh!
Roan’s ice spear shot past above his eyes.
A stinging pain came with warm liquid trickling from his forehead.
Around then, the ice binding his legs shattered from the electric transformation magic.
Crackle!
“What……!”
Thud!
Freed, I shot forward as if possessed.
Explosive speed incomparable to before.
Riding that momentum, he thrust his fist.
Crack!
Roan quickly raised a barrier, but the fist shattered it and sank into Roan’s abdomen.
“Guhhh!”
Roan collapsed to the ground, face twisted in pain, thick saliva dripping from his mouth.
“Good work. It was a good match.”
“Damn……!”
I offered a hand to Roan, but he slammed the ground in frustration.
“……Why my magic!”
Unusually emotional. From his words, he couldn’t accept his barrier breaking.
Forcibly pulling him up, I said.
“It had to break.”
“……Your magic was far less sturdy than mine.”
“Yeah, it was. But sturdy magic isn’t always stronger.”
“……What do you mean?”
“I told you. Training helps magic.”
“……So it came from your body?”
“Right.”
Roan lowered his head, lost in thought.
His mind must be in turmoil. The idea that the body affects magic was probably new.
It might even shake his long-held values as a mage.
‘Well, I can’t do anything about that.’
Ultimately, he had to find the answer himself.
Patting Roan’s shoulder once, I turned around slightly.
“…….”
There, the nine mages who’d watched the spar stood dumbfounded, like they’d eaten honey.
They must have felt something sufficiently.
“Done watching? Back to training.”
Thompson was the first to react.
“As expected, training’s the key! Uooo!”
Thompson gritted his teeth and lifted the iron weight enchanted with weight magic.
Then, the others, who’d looked deflated, started snapping out of it one by one.
“Me too, definitely!”
“Hoo! Hoo!”
“Hraa!”
Right after the spar with Roan ended.
The training hall heated up in no time.
***
Clatter, clatter.
Inside the carriage provided by the academy.
Impressed by the good ride, I turned to the seat beside.
There sat Roan, still serious-faced, pondering something.
Unable to hold back, I broke the silence first.
“What’re you thinking so deeply about?”
“……Ah. Um.”
Roan flapped his mouth a few times, unsure, then spoke.
“……Just redefining what magic is.”
“What magic is?”
“Yeah, but answers don’t come easy. Like how magic originated, what mana’s source is, the relations between magic, mind, and body…… I realized I know nothing. Just my own ignorance.”
“…….”
This guy really was a born mage. Worries I’d never had and never wanted to have, he clung to them this long.
“What I’m most curious about…… is what the great archmages in history, and Aldeon, aimed to reach.”
“Right, come to think of it…….”
In the game story, notable mages all sought to reach somewhere.
Some called it the end of magic or the pinnacle.
Aldeon probably aimed to reach it using ‘true light.’
Anyway, the key was they desired some ‘end.’
“The end of magic…….”
What lay at the end they so longed for?
Maybe because I’d gone down the mage tree, I felt curious too.
Someday, I might yearn for that end myself.
But it was too early for such worries.
Especially now, with imminent dangers.
“You can think about that when the time comes.”
In just a month, the great war with demons awaited. Priority was finding ways to overcome it.
“Yeah, you’re right.”
Roan nodded in agreement.
“Indeed, our level’s too low for such worries. Better after reaching higher circles.”
Well, he took it differently, but it didn’t matter.
More than that……
“So, decided on the physical training?”
“Ah, yes. I’ll stick to magic. Not confident in using my body, and above all, my talent’s in magic.”
“I see.”
He’d decided on the standard mage build.
“Not pushing more?”
“Choice is free.”
No reason to push.
He was growing well, and standard mage wasn’t bad anyway.
Without body-related abilities like [Former Owner of Sword Saint], focusing on magic might even be better.
As I thought that, Roan smiled faintly.
“That last move in the spar, Yoo Han, was astounding. Makes you see why training matters.”
Hm? Sudden praise?
“So?”
“Though I lost the spar…… now it’s my turn.”
“Your turn?”
Roan pointed out the window as he said that.
And there.
“……The Magic Academy?”
Was a place teeming with spires so advanced, it was hard to believe it was the same Asteron.
“Time to show you the results of immersing in magic.”
Completely different from the academy 100 years ago in the game I played.
What had happened there?
And what would I gain from it?
“This…… I’m looking forward to it.”
I wanted to meet those bone-deep mages soon.