Emilia (1)

After the entrance ceremony ended, I headed straight for the training room in the dormitory. Today, I planned to test Selection and Concentration on my mana adaptation stat.

Schluss Heinkel’s internal circuit generated mana energy, which I would break down into mana to strengthen the body… The theory was flawless. But because it involved handling mana energy, I couldn’t help feeling nervous. Last time, I had nearly died from leaking just a tiny speck of it.

“Hoo. Let’s give it a shot.”

I changed into a thin short-sleeved shirt so that even if I coughed up blood, it wouldn’t make too much of a mess.

Selection and Concentration. Apply to mana adaptation.

The time limit was three seconds. Before those three seconds ran out, I quickly began channeling mana into my internal circuit.

Immediately, a strange roaring sound erupted as my entire body grew blazing hot.

The fundamental role of an internal circuit was to decompose mana into pure mana energy. The decomposed mana would then circulate through the circuit, distributing evenly throughout the body and reinforcing every part of it. Depending on the circuit’s configuration, it could enhance physical strength, flexibility, or other attributes.

However, Schluss’s tangled and convoluted internal circuit barely managed to decompose mana at all. Instead, the strong resistance caused it to generate massive amounts of mana energy.

Decomposing mana into mana energy yielded roughly equivalent amounts. But when mana energy was decomposed, the resulting mana increased by approximately a thousandfold. This was the fundamental reason why Ma-in were so overwhelmingly powerful—a realm utterly unreachable by human-level mana adaptation.

“Grrrrgh…!”

Amid the searing pain that spread through my whole body, I felt the sensation of mana rapidly filling me. Just before the three-second limit expired, I shut down the circuit’s operation.

No more mana was being generated, yet my entire body still thrummed with surging power. It seemed the decomposed mana remained even after the circuit stopped functioning.

“Hup!”

I tested it by sprinting across the training room. My body shot forward like a bullet slicing through the wind, slamming into the opposite wall in an instant. I never imagined the acceleration would be so extreme that controlling it would be this difficult…

BOOM!

When I punched the sandbag, a sonic boom rang out and the bag exploded. The power was still far short of what I’d used to burst Iskandal’s skull, but it was unmistakably beyond human limits.

“Huu…”

The invigorating trace of mana that had made my body feel so light faded cleanly after about five minutes. Once it disappeared, I returned to my original frail self.

Five minutes. For five minutes, I could possess physical abilities that rivaled a high-ranking knight. If I used Selection and Concentration on strength or agility, I could unleash overwhelming force for three seconds. But considering the five-minute duration—even if the boost was somewhat weaker—there would clearly be situations where applying it to mana adaptation like this was the better choice.

“Ah…”

A warm liquid trickled down from my nose. When I wiped it away, sure enough, it was a nosebleed. Even with my ridiculously high adaptation stat, I still couldn’t decompose mana energy at 100 percent efficiency.

Still, all I felt was total exhaustion. It wasn’t nearly as bad as last time when I’d collapsed. The amount of mana I’d poured into the internal circuit this time was 100. If I dumped all 1,000 of Schluss’s maximum mana capacity into it, I would become ten times stronger… but the residual mana energy would also increase tenfold. That would probably kill me for real. It seemed I would never use my full mana capacity.

After finishing the test, it was time for sword training. I picked up a wooden sword and activated Memory of the True Body to peek into Schluss’s memories. Once again, it showed young Schluss learning swordsmanship from his father.

An hour later, when the ability ended, I felt as if the sword techniques had settled into my body. Yet I couldn’t shake the unpleasant feeling. Every time I used this ability, it felt like I was assimilating with Schluss…

“Ugh. Fuck…”

My right arm throbbed, forcing me to stop for a moment. I had unwrapped all the bandages because they looked too conspicuous, but the pain in my arm and fingers remained. Since the joints didn’t seem like they would dislocate again, I figured it was fine to keep using the arm like this.

“Yes, 5,000 Tirion… Confirmed. I will transfer it promptly. Is there any message you would like to convey?”

“There is none.”

“Understood.”

After swinging the sword for another two hours, I stopped by the bank. I intended to grow my money as I had planned earlier. The 10,000 Tirion provided for maintaining dignity was enough to live on for a month, but more money was always better. Besides, I had no idea when I might lose the top student position and have my funds cut off, so it was best to multiply my wealth as much as possible.

For now, I split 5,000 Tirion between the Shaden Trading Company and the Holy Knights. Both would skyrocket from insignificant players after a major event that would occur soon. They were the optimal targets for short-term profit.

“Hm. They’ve arrived.”

When I returned to the dormitory, three boxes were stacked in front of the main gate. All of them contained thick books. It seemed the ordered volumes had been delivered. Since the top student could borrow any academic books for free, I had rented them all at once.

“Nngh…!”

It took three full trips of straining every muscle before I finally moved all the books into the training room. Having a servant really would be nice. This mansion was far too large for one person to manage. It would probably turn into a dust pit in less than three days.

I pulled out the books I had shoved into a corner of the training room and opened them one by one. I started with the most basic Introduction to Magic Studies. If I pulled an all-nighter, could I reach the average first-year level?

Full of enthusiasm, I—

“What the hell is this gibberish?”

Less than ten minutes later, I closed the book again. It was supposed to be fully translated into Korean thanks to the Translation ability, yet it felt like I was staring at alien script. Of course it was. The pages were packed with specialized terminology I had never described in the novel.

“Inquiry… Tsk.”

Even using Inquiry on the words did nothing. It seemed the ability only reacted to physical objects. Since I couldn’t understand anything, I ended up opening even the most elementary textbooks meant for children just to look up each term one by one.

Now that I knew all the terms, did that mean I understood it?

“No, this is insane… What the fuck is this…”

It was even worse. It had become harder than before. When I didn’t know the terms, I only vaguely sensed that it was difficult. Now that I understood some of it, I realized the actual difficulty far exceeded anything I had imagined. This was downright despairing.

Forget maintaining my top student rank—I might have to retake every single class.

“Goddamn it. That can’t happen…”

I opened Introduction to Magic Studies again. Today, it was either you or me. I had to at least preview up to the second week’s material if I wanted any chance of keeping up with the others. I would shut up and study until I got it.

After skimming through the basic theory and moving on to practical magic training, a quest appeared. Gravity magic—one of the most fundamental and easiest spells. Fittingly, it only had a single star for difficulty. Good. For today, I would aim to complete this quest.

*

“Nngh…”

I had underestimated magic. No matter how basic it was, magic was still magic. There was a reason mages were so rare in this world. First, one had to intuitively grasp the concept of formulas—invisible constructs—before even attempting to use magic… Countless people spent their entire lives unable to cast a single spell because they couldn’t manage that step.

I was currently struggling just to assemble one simple formula… Still, as the author of this novel, I couldn’t allow myself to look so pathetic by failing to cast even one spell. If I made use of the metaphors and imagery I had used while describing magic, it shouldn’t be completely impossible.

I had no idea how many hours I had been absorbed in it. With no windows in here, I couldn’t even tell how much time ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had passed. After torturing my body for such a long time—

“Oh. It worked.”

I had become capable of casting gravity magic. When I poured mana into the clumsily completed formula, the wooden sword lying on the floor rose into the air. But after only a few seconds, it began to tremble and fell back down with a clatter.

With only 100 mana, I could only keep it afloat for a few seconds?

“Haa…”

I lay back, simultaneously feeling a sense of accomplishment at finally succeeding and utter helplessness. Schluss Heinkel’s mana stat was 1. In this world’s units, that equaled 1,000. It was low. Terribly low.

The average stat was 10, so even people who couldn’t use magic usually had at least 10,000 mana. Those who were considered somewhat strong often reached 20,000 or even 30,000… With only 1,000 mana, even if I knew how to cast spells, I could barely lift a wooden sword for a few dozen seconds. If I wanted to use any reasonably powerful magic, using Selection and Concentration on my mana stat was absolutely essential.

No matter how I thought about it, there were far too many uses for Selection and Concentration. Three seconds per day was simply too little. Was there no way to increase it?

“Ah. The shop.”

Come to think of it, there was a shop. Maybe there were ways to strengthen abilities there.

“Oh, right.”

I had somehow forgotten again like an idiot. The shop only opened once every stat exceeded 10. This was seriously annoying. By the time the shop opened, wouldn’t the novel already be in its final arc?

“Wait a second.”

While examining the shop activation conditions, one loophole occurred to me. It never said all stats had to reach 10 at the same time. That meant if I could push every stat above 10 even temporarily, it should count, right? For example, using Selection and Concentration to exceed 10 for just three seconds—wouldn’t that be accepted?

“The stats I’ve already raised are computational power, strength, and mana adaptation…”

Excluding the ones that were already over 10 from the start, the remaining stats were durability, agility, mana, and stamina—four in total. If my hypothesis was correct, I could open the shop in the next four days by raising these four stats.

Good. The shop, which had seemed forever out of reach, was now only four days away. I was curious what items would be available. If it was nothing special, I’d be pretty disappointed.

Gurgle…

“Ugh. I’m starving to death.”

Only after my stomach growled did I realize how ravenously hungry I was. I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, so of course I was starving. It had been so long since I’d concentrated this intensely that I had even forgotten my own habits. Whenever I lost track of time writing in front of the computer, that person used to bring me food…

No. Let’s stop thinking about that.

“What the—?”

The moment I opened the door, blinding light poured in. I looked up at the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sky and saw the sun high overhead. It was noon… Had I really stayed cooped up in the training room all night and the entire morning? Subtracting the time I spent at the bank, that meant roughly twenty-five hours?

Now that I realized how much time had passed, I felt even hungrier. I had bought ingredients yesterday, so I should make something to eat.

“Hm…?”

I sensed a presence near the main gate. At first I thought it was a visitor, but I quickly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠remembered who it was. It was a minor event that occurred the day after the entrance ceremony.

“Greetings! I have come to volunteer as the attendant for this year’s first-year top student!”

“……”

When I stepped out through the main gate, three people standing in a line greeted me. Yes, the event in question was the selection of the top student’s attendant… And an incredibly important person had come as one of the candidates.

“For now, all of you, come inside.”

“Yes!”

Among them, I fixed my gaze on the black-haired, pure-looking woman standing farthest to the right. How could she match the image I had imagined so perfectly? It was almost creepy.

“Is there something on my face?”

“…No.”

Emilia Siegfried. A spy belonging to the Trude Kingdom’s Intelligence Bureau… and the younger sister of the protagonist, Hurtlocker Siegfried, had arrived.