Dungeon Practice (4)
Dungeon Practice (4)
Attila signaled the start of the suppression.
Normally, if you had a high-output mage or someone capable of ranged attacks, you would hammer the target from a distance first, but since our team had no such capability, Attila took point.
- BOOM!
As we emerged from the densely wooded mountain, Attila stepped into the open clearing. It was a short distance from the palisade.
"Keruk? Ke, keruk!"
A Green Ghost standing watch in a watchtower far too grand for the likes of it spotted Attila and its eyes flew wide. It shrieked, alerting the others to the intruder.
- BOOM!
Attila's leg slammed the ground. Cobweb cracks shot across the earth. Planting her foot in the sunken soil, her next step hammered down again.
- BOOM! BOOM!
Attila was fairly heavily armored. Not caked in iron slabs like some medieval knight, but still wearing reasonably thick defensive gear.
After roughly five driving steps, Attila's eyes blazed. Her mana surged across her entire body.
- KABOOM!
A different sound from before. This time it was not mere cracks; a section of the ground outright caved in. Attila raised her shield and kicked off the earth.
Fragments of ground exploded backward. Her legs, saturated with mana, propelled her forward and accelerated.
That was not all. Her raised shield became wreathed in mana, then sheathed in a sinister blood-red Aura.
"Keruk?!"
Sensing something dire, the Green Ghost's cries turned frantic. The Green Ghosts of the village scrambled, snatching up weapons.
Before they could mount a proper response, Attila's form closed the distance in an instant and rammed into the thick wooden palisade.
- CRAAASH!
"Keek!"
The instant of impact—the section of palisade Attila struck burst apart. An explosive roar, as if a bomb had detonated, was followed by the shrieks of the Green Ghosts.
Wooden splinters sprayed everywhere. Amid the Green Ghosts reeling from the sharp shrapnel, the ground shook with another BOOM.
The palisade had been breached in a single blow. But Attila did not stop there. Retaining all her momentum from the breach, she trampled the ground repeatedly, shield thrust forward.
"Keruk! Keeeek!"
"Kek! Keruruk!"
Aura coiled around her shield, and she maintained body reinforcement across her entire frame. Attila, a literal human tank, rampaged through the village.
Green Ghosts in her path burst apart. Some had their bodies reduced to scraps; others were sent flying far away, limbs torn off and tumbling across the ground.
"Keruk..."
But not every Green Ghost was dead. Those that barely dodged the collision clutched their crude weapons and tried to encircle Attila—when a cold spear punched through one Green Ghost's throat.
- CRUNCH! THUNK—!
"Entry complete."
It was Nam Yeon-jung's spear. He had followed her in immediately after Attila shattered the palisade. His spear, too, was sheathed in a deep blue Aura that punched through Green Ghost hide and bone like paper.
Nam Yeon-jung followed Attila, thrusting his spear in rapid succession. The Green Ghosts attempting to encircle Attila promptly offered their necks to the stabbing spear.
Attila broke their formation, and Nam Yeon-jung, following behind, tore through the collapsing ranks and whittled down their numbers so they could not regroup.
"Having fun, are we?"
Aiden grumbled as he watched, swinging his arm. A cleanly arced blade drew a line.
- SLICE
"Keruk...!"
A Green Ghost that had been creeping closer lost its head. I gave a mental nod watching Aiden kick the corpse aside—THWACK—so it wouldn't get in the way.
His blade trajectory was definitely cleaner than during sparring. Part of it might be growth since then, but it probably meant he had been holding back during the sparring matches.
On the vanguard, Attila and Nam Yeon-jung tore through the Green Ghosts at the center of the village. In the middle guard, Ellia and I blocked the broken palisade, cutting off any Green Ghosts trying to flee and supporting the vanguard.
Since the village entrance was near the already demolished section, blocking both at once was manageable.
"—, —."
Ellia's lips moved.
An incantation. Self-suggestion for mana manipulation. The simplest method of casting magic.
- Hmmmm!
Mana flowed out of Ellia and arrayed itself into a complex formula. The arranged mana let out a brief hum and then flew to Attila and Nam Yeon-jung, who were rampaging through the center.
WHAM! A Green Ghost caught by Attila's shield brutally exploded. She flinched at the eyeball sailing through the air—then, grasping the situation, smiled a bloodthirsty smile and kicked off the ground again.
'So that's Enhancement Magic.'
Ellia's Unique Ability—healing. Its official designation was 【Recovery Melody】, if I recalled correctly.
It designated a target and granted two effects: Immediate Recovery and Recovery Amplification. The ratio between the two could be adjusted, and a minor enhancement effect was also applied for the duration—or so I recalled.
The enhancement effect was weak, so she had separately taken up Enhancement Magic to learn it—Ellia herself had told me a few hours earlier at the café.
Since her Unique Ability already had an enhancement component, she said she'd picked it up more easily than expected.
I assessed the general situation. Counting the Green Ghosts, roughly half had already become byproducts.
I knew Siyoram cadets could chew up 8th Rank monsters like a snack, but actually seeing it in person sent chills down my spine regardless.
If Attila rammed into me right now, I felt like I'd cheerfully become a byproduct too...
I had identified three 7th Rank individuals beforehand. Unlike the other Green Ghosts, their movements were more pronounced, and their mana reserves were several times greater than those of the 8th Rank ones.
One had already become a byproduct. The other two were barely clinging to life in the rear, using 8th Rank Green Ghosts as meat shields.
Even so, it was just buying time. It looked like they would all be cleaned up soon enough.
'Hmm...'
The vanguard seemed fine. In real time, Green Ghosts were being ground up like they had been shoved through a blender.
Ellia kept her mana on standby and had drawn the sword she'd brought, staying alert to the surroundings.
Aiden had dispatched a few Green Ghosts trying to slip out through the broken palisade and was now guarding me and Ellia.
In short, there was a little breathing room. I nodded to myself and gripped my staff.
Over the past weekend, I had dabbled a little in magic. I had help from Professor Liana, and I also flipped through books at the library.
It might be audacious to think I could get started in magic with three days at most, but thanks to the synergy of Mana Affinity, Spatial Perception, and All-Rounder, I had managed to get a handle on a few Lowest-Grade spells.
- Hmmmm
I drew out mana and poured it into the staff. The staff looked exactly like what one would picture as a wizard's staff.
It had a dark brown wooden body, carved from mana-absorbing wood, and at its tip a blue Crystal Orb—a processed Mana Crystal.
In this world, a mage's staff served two main roles.
The first was mana storage.
Because the amount of mana used in magic was generally nothing to scoff at, mages were perpetually plagued by mana shortages. That was why they carried around these auxiliary batteries.
The second was calculation assistance.
Magic was often likened to calculation. It was not a perfect analogy—emotional factors and such also played a part—but in the sense that mana had to be manipulated with exacting precision, it fit well enough.
For that reason, mages required a degree of mana manipulation ability exceeding even that of frontliners. And no matter how skilled your manipulation was, having assistance made things easier. The staff fulfilled both roles: mana storage and calculation assistance.
But this staff's calculation assistance was weak.
The spells I was working with were, at most, Lowest-Grade, so precise calculation was unnecessary. Professor Liana had also advised that relying on assistance would ultimately harm my natural skill growth.
Above all, thanks to Mana Affinity, I had yet to hit a wall difficult enough to require calculation.
So this staff was an auxiliary battery specialized in mana storage.
I steadied my breathing and raised the staff.
The easiest, most representative method of activating magic was incantation. Speaking words aloud—one of the most powerful forms of self-suggestion.
But I could not do that. The damn Curse of Silence kept my mouth sealed shut.
So no incantation. Hand seals were possible, but the spell I was casting now did not require even that.
- Hmmmm
My mana seeped into the staff and knocked against the Crystal Orb at its tip.
It was similar to the Crystal Orb training I had done with Professor Liana before. Tap the mana stored in the orb and draw it out. Use that as material to cast the spell.
Drawn by my mana, the orb's stored mana leaked out. It was a small amount, barely noticeable, since I had amply charged it beforehand.
But this much was enough. I took a deep breath and manipulated the mana.
Mana coalesced at the tip of the staff. I focused my mind and arrayed the mana.
I had used this spell a few times. Since my total mana was so low, I had collapsed from mana exhaustion after only a few casts—but among those few casts, I had never failed.
The mana moved swiftly, gathering at the staff's tip. The cluster of mana became a Magic Formula. Preparations to fire were complete. Maintaining my focus, I aimed the staff at a 7th Rank Green Ghost.
At the same moment, I fired the completed formula.
【Mana Strike】
A Lowest-Grade spell considered closer to mana manipulation than true magic.
It was not a spell processed with an attribute like Fireball or Lightning. Nor was it a spell with a complex structure.
It simply sharpened mana into a blade and launched it. It had a basic structural formula, but no targeting correction.
True to its name, it was a spell whose sole function was firing a slash of mana. So simple that I had succeeded on my very first attempt.
I had used it over the weekend. A small, thin blade of mana—smaller than a Green Ghost—shot out, flew about ten meters, and then dissipated into the air.
Anyway, since we had a bit of breathing room, I figured I would just give it a shot. If I lucked out and killed one Green Ghost, wouldn't that be a decent result?
I activated the spell.
Lowest-Grade Magic
【Mana Strike】
- CRAAAACK!
"!?"
A slash erupted from the tip of the staff. A huge blue slash, easily double my height. My collar flapped in the violent gust.
The slash plowed forward, gouging a long furrow into the ground, kicking up clods of dirt in all directions. The sudden roar made three or four Green Ghosts whip their heads around—and they were split vertically.
"The fuck?"
"What the hell."
It did not end there. Twenty meters, thirty meters, forty meters... The slash completely ignored its original range, and Green Ghosts in its path were dismembered, their limbs lopped off one after another.
The slash reached the 7th Rank Green Ghost as well.
The Green Ghost, which had been using its lanky arms to swing a crude longsword scavenged from who-knew-where, its eyes flew wide at the slash flying toward it.
- SLICE!
"KEEEEEK—!"
It twisted its body with fairly quick reflexes, but one arm was caught within the slash's range. Accompanied by the Green Ghost's horrific scream, the severed arm tumbled across the ground.
The slash, having claimed over ten 8th Rank Green Ghosts and one arm of a 7th Rank Green Ghost, finally slammed into the palisade on the opposite side. SLICE! Only after effortlessly slicing through the palisade did the slash scatter and disappear into the air.
A long scar was carved into the ground. Billowing dust clouds rose around it. One side of the palisade, having lost its center, collapsed like dominoes. The dust thickened.
The extremely few surviving Green Ghosts. Attila, who had been enthusiastically beating Green Ghosts to death. Nam Yeon-jung, who had been assisting her with his spear thrusts.
Ellia beside me, who had been preparing Enhancement Magic. And Aiden, who had been keeping watch of our surroundings.
Everyone looked this way. Their gazes were laden with shock and bewilderment.
'...?'
I could not answer that bewilderment. Because I did not know the reason either.
- Patter, patter...
Only now did the sound of clods of earth hitting the ground echo around us.