Spell Workshop (2)
Spell Workshop (2)
We moved to a different location—a large facility prepared in the basement of the same building.
The floor, walls, and ceiling were all pure white. Scanning the materials revealed it was a space specifically designed to resist magic.
If the earlier lecture room was a kind of design room, this place was a testing lab for measuring performance. The facility couldn't be damaged by mid-grade magic or lower, and even if damage occurred, it would automatically repair itself.
"We will shortly conduct an experiment to see if your spell workshops function properly. The evaluation will focus less on abilities like offense and defense, and more on whether stable maintenance is possible."
The professor who had led us to the basement clapped her hands as she spoke.
"Will this experiment be reflected in our grades?"
"As this is your first test, it won't be reflected in your evaluation. However, small bonuses or attitude evaluations may be given based on achievement, so please do your best."
The professor answered as if she'd expected the question, then scanned the room.
"There's plenty of space, so please keep a good distance and construct your workshop as you designed it in the lecture room within the time limit. If you have additional questions, don't hesitate to approach me. Right, begin."
With that brief start, the cadets found their partners and scattered around the room.
As the professor had said, the room was so spacious that the distance between cadets was adequate. At the very least, there didn't seem to be any risk of getting hit by a bizarre malfunctioning spell.
- The foundation is way too excessive... Didn't you cram too many detailed formulas in there?
- If I don't stack them this much, the other formulas collapse. It's a bit of a strain, but I can handle it. And if it collapses, I'll just fix it right away, so don't worry.
- What's this, why aren't there any attack spells? Did you forget them?
- That's the original design. The best offense is a good defense... I'm going all in on defense.
- You crazy bastard.
The surroundings quickly grew noisy.
The sight of everyone quickly setting up their designed workshops, pointing out each other's issues and oddities and exchanging opinions, was quite friendly.
From a quick scan, many of them seemed to already be on familiar terms.
'Magic factions especially have a lot of connections.'
Magic is a technique that's easy to leave behind as knowledge. Other skills like martial arts can also be left as knowledge, but they don't take the intuitive form of 'spell formulas' like magic does.
Even if the user dies, the spell formula remains and endures. The results may vary depending on the user, but the original form survives.
When that accumulated knowledge piles up, it becomes a valuable asset for descendants.
Thus, families or factions that have amassed vast magical knowledge over generations often share their knowledge with each other, within limits that don't leak their core magic.
They share miscellaneous knowledge and build their own connections.
In that process, it's even better to forge ties among the children who will lead their factions in the future. The fewer enemies the better, and the more allies the better.
That logic applies to me too. No matter how wide the gap grows later, making connections is never a bad thing.
'Hmm...'
I observed the surroundings for a moment, then turned my focus back.
[How about setting up around here?]
"Yes, the distance is appropriate, so this should be good."
Tap-tap— Baize Dietrich, who had been tapping the floor with his staff, nodded.
...
The conversation died.
An awkward atmosphere hung in the air around me in the midst of the fairly bustling basement.
He rolled his eyes with a somewhat sheepish expression, and I also blankly opened and closed my mouth.
'Ah! Right, introductions.'
Come to think of it, we'd come straight down here after being paired up, so there hadn't been time to greet each other. I'd already made my presence known, so I discreetly extended a hand toward him.
[I'm late with my introduction.]
[I'm Lee Ha-yul from the Ipchun Class.]
[It's a pleasure to meet you.]
"Ah, yes, the pleasure is mine. I'm Baize Dietrich, a magic major from the Awakening of Insects Class."
My skin had returned to normal, but my right arm was still wrapped in sock-like arm sleeves. Even so, extending a prosthetic arm felt a little off.
"It often gets confusing if I'm called by my surname, so I'd be grateful if you could just call me Baize."
[Alright, Baize.]
Baize smiled softly and reached out to take my hand.
We shook hands up and down about three or four times, then let go.
...
The conversation stalled again. Baize seemed to be gauging my reaction with a blank look, then turned back and continued setting up his spell workshop.
'...What should I do?'
It's good to build connections. My head knows that. I received help in the original work too. The more allies, the better...
But how does one make allies? Thinking about it belatedly, I realized... I didn't know how to make friends...
Of course, I have knowledge from the original work. Even if it's not perfectly accurate, referencing it would be quite helpful in getting closer to him. If not that, I could predict the situation someone faces, offer help, and earn their trust that way.
But Baize Dietrich didn't have that kind of vulnerability.
The second son of the Dietrich family, renowned as a prestigious magic house.
He had no reason to suffer from need in terms of status.
His family relationships were also smooth.
The head of the family and his wife weren't bad people in the original work either.
Baize's older brother, the eldest son, is a genius excelling in both literary and martial arts, and his temperament isn't bad either. He's slated to succeed as family head later on, and as far as I know, Baize doesn't have any particular complaints about that.
His talent is outstanding enough to enter Siyoram, and he received support without any shortage.
He had no greed for the family head position, so there was no conflict with the eldest son, and he received plenty of affection from his parents.
His family's location was also not a harsh place, so he spent a peaceful childhood.
Of course, his hometown gets completely destroyed later due to a Tower invasion... but it was a peaceful region before that.
So right now, he's a person with no particular lack to speak of.
'......'
Right around when I'd thought that far, I recalled how Baize and the 5th Iteration had become close.
There was nothing particularly special. Back then, the 5th Iteration hadn't sought out Baize on purpose. They'd just happened to meet during a Siyoram group project, and somehow ended up getting close because their growth directions aligned.
Tap-tap... I tapped the floor with my staff.
I drew out the mana from my core and circulated it outward. I calmly wove the spell formula starting from beneath my feet. I didn't need to waste time flipping back and forth between reference texts like some of the other cadets.
I'd already thought through how to unfold the spell formula from start to finish, everything in my head.
The calculations were done too. Now I just had to manipulate the mana.
And that's something I'm very good at.
"...This is."
Baize's eyes twitched as he was constructing his workshop.
He whipped his head around and stared fixedly at the spell formula I was in the middle of weaving.
Ordinarily, I would have mixed in a concealment formula to prevent recognition, but I hadn't added one to this simple workshop. Thanks to that, Baize could smoothly perceive my spell formula.
A glint of keen interest flickered in Baize's eyes as he stared at my formula for a while.
'It's the same as the original work. Good.'
Baize had been born and raised in too good an environment to develop a sense of lack, but he did have a lack of his own.
A curiosity and a lack regarding magic. It's the lack most orthodox mages possess.
The prevailing opinion is that to even reach the level of a mage, you need not just talent, but also a will bordering on madness in some respects.
Baize, who possesses the potential to earn the official mage title from the Magic Council, was like that too. More than becoming the family head, he wanted to study magic.
"A Mana Strike... It's not the original, but a modified formula, isn't it?"
[Yes, I've modified it to suit my convenience.]
"And you lowered its stability while drastically increasing its power."
[The original was too weak to use as a foundation, so I boosted its power.]
"There's no tracking formula either? Like that, you'd have to manually control every single one, making it almost impossible to land a hit..."
[I can hit the target even without a tracking formula.]
"How...?"
[I just link it with my detection ability in real time.]
"Ah, a detection ability..."
The awkwardness Baize had been trying to hide in his eyes vanished in an instant.
He edged closer with a look of curiosity, hovering at the periphery of the workshop I was constructing and firing off questions.
"It's a spell formula full of flaws."
Baize examined the formula with a solemn face.
A spell formula full of flaws... He wasn't wrong.
The Mana Strike I use is a formula modified to suit me. I'd favored it even in the early semester when my skills were lacking, and afterward, I'd been making minor adjustments over time.
I'd drastically increased its power. In exchange, I abandoned stability, so if careless, it could strain the user.
It's fine. I can control all of it.
There's no tracking formula. I dropped it because it consumed too many resources, and boosted the output further. Thanks to that, the accuracy rate plummeted to rock bottom, but I can make every shot land using the Observation Authority.
It's possible because I possess the Observation Authority and Mana Affinity. Since the formula was designed on the premise of my own use from the start, it's a formula full of defects for anyone else to use.
"But... it's functioning normally. No, it's functioning even better than the original."
Baize loves magic and wants to learn all of it, but he does have a preferred field within that.
It was the same for other mages too. They have preferences, and differences in aptitude.
Someone specializes in simple mana manipulation.
Someone handles attribute-type magic professionally. There are those who delve into barriers, and others into familiars, traps, composite attacks, curses, defense, support... there are many different branches.
Even among mages with such diverse preferences, Baize's inclinations were of a peculiar kind.
He has an aptitude for magic that falls under the orthodox path. That talent would eventually earn him the impressive title of 'Wise Mage' in the 5th Iteration timeline.
"This is incredible... The fact that this is functioning normally."
At the same time, he was also interested in the half-baked, heretical magic of the unorthodox path, where a screw is loose somewhere and the very fundamentals are warped.
That's why we'd grown so close in the 5th Iteration.
The iteration that, despite having learned magic, couldn't manifest magic normally because the circuits inside the body had been used as spell formulas.
The iteration that, among mages who styled themselves as artillery, would charge into the enemy ranks and crush foes with its limbs.
The iteration that even mages who embraced diversity called a madman, and that had the title of lunatic attached.
The 5th Iteration 'Foolish Reverse Magic Path'... the system title was Foolish General's Reverse Path.
A title that was quite the contrast to Wise Mage.
[Yes, as you say, Baize, it's a half-baked spell formula with considerable risk.]
"H-huh? Ah, I-I'm sorry. I said something rude..."
I smiled softly and turned to face him. He'd been blankly analyzing my spell formula, but the moment I entered his field of view, he startled violently as if splashed with cold water and jumped back with a yelp.
'?'
Inwardly tilting my head at that reaction, I continued to manipulate the Confession Necklace.
[That's why I'm seeking advice from other mages.]
[If I could control all the risks, what should I do here to increase the power even further?]
[What would you do, Baize?]
I'm planning to enter the Tower of Knowledge soon, and while Baize hasn't fully matured yet... considering his aptitude, maybe I could get some useful advice?
* * *
【Player Correction System: Affection】
Lee Ha-yul → Baize Dietrich
● ● ● ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ (35/100)
｢Normal｣