Semester-End Evaluation
The semester-end evaluation had already reached its third day. My opponent in the second match was a male student named Walter, who ranked in the middle of the pack. The guy who wielded a halberd kept hammering away at my forearms while pouring out curses.
“Fall down! Just fall down already!!”
“Would you fall down if you were me?”
Of course, I didn’t budge an inch. He lacked Alissa’s speed and didn’t have the offensive power to break through my defense. There was no way I would lose to someone like him. In fact, his reckless barrage had thrown off his breathing so badly that I could win anytime I felt like it.
In the end, the five minutes passed with neither of us gaining any real advantage, and the match concluded in a draw.
“Damn it! If I’d just won this one match, I could’ve moved up!”
Walter stomped his feet in frustration. Since the semester-end evaluation used completely random matchmaking, some students had already finished their final matches. This naturally raised one question: the issue of fairness between those whose matches were scheduled early and those scheduled late.
There had actually been controversy about this before, but the academy’s stance remained rock solid. The academy was an institution meant to nurture students into talents for a new era, and to do that, it had to provide experiences no different from real combat. The world wasn’t fair, and it wouldn’t wait for anyone, so when a crisis struck, one had to make their own judgment and find a way through. They even went so far as to tell those who still complained, “If you don’t like it, don’t come here.”
In the end, this incident revealed that the academy was a pure meritocracy, and ironically, the number of applicants actually increased. That was common knowledge.
Anyway, what I wanted to say right now was that I still had one match left.
I hope it ends soon.
It wasn’t just that it was boring. After learning from the practical training incident that the Dark Cult’s movements had changed, I couldn’t help feeling anxious that something might happen. Even though they had strengthened security by using the previous academy incident as a lesson, it was bound to be breached eventually.
Even in the game, the academy hadn’t just sat there like idiots and kept taking hits.
Sigh… I should go train.
Worrying about it wouldn’t change what was going to happen. I shook off my lingering thoughts, left the gymnasium, and headed to the underground training room in the cafeteria, just as I had for the past few weeks.
The moment I stepped on the large circle in the center, the walls lit up brightly and magic bullets fired at me.
Bang! Bababang!
I stared at the magic bullets. The instant they entered my range, I stayed inside the circle and swung my fist at precisely the right moment to knock them away. Since starting this training, my Sense stat had grown quite a bit, so this much was easy now.
But the number of magic bullets kept increasing. Finally, when they reached a level my dynamic vision and movements could no longer keep up with—
“Fuck, this isn’t working!”
I stepped out of the circle. It was still too much for me to handle all those attacks in such a confined space. I used the footwork of the Shadowless Step that Kain had taught me, moving quickly while luring the magic bullets into colliding with each other to endure as long as possible.
I held on and held on until the total number of magic bullets reached 1,024. That was when my defense finally collapsed.
Perberberberbong!
“Aaaaaaaaagh!”
The pain that drilled into my bones made me scream, but I kept moving frantically. Using the technique I’d learned after possessing this body—how to get hit without it hurting—I absorbed as much of the impact as possible while knocking away the magic bullets to last even a second longer.
But these damn things seemed to have brains. They dug into my openings with devilish cunning. While showering my entire body evenly with hits, they would occasionally launch a sudden barrage of ten consecutive strikes into my side.
If I took all of them, it was over. No matter how much I’d trained my endurance, I’d have no choice but to drop to my knees. This time I managed to predict and block it, but the next attack was the problem. Now they were focusing on the back of my neck and my groin.
“You demonic bastards!”
Was I crazy? I was engaged in psychological warfare with magic bullets that didn’t have a shred of intelligence!
Even as I doubted this unbelievable reality, I focused on reading the magic bullets’ intentions. But I didn’t know. These magic bullets weren’t under the control of an overarching system—they were separate entities, each with their own will.
As I tried to knock away the one aiming for my groin, another one cut in front and struck my side instead.
Thwack!
And once one cut in, the rest swarmed in after it.
Thwackthwackthwackthwack!
“Graaaaagh!”
The blows came so fast I couldn’t even blink. In the end, I dropped to my knees. Before the follow-up strikes could land, I quickly channeled mana through my feet into the floor and deactivated the magic circle.
The magic bullet that had reached right in front of my groin scattered away by a hair’s breadth.
“Huff… huff! I almost died.”
My dick was a treasure I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world. If I became a eunuch, I wouldn’t be able to commit rape anymore, which meant I’d lose access to my ridiculously overpowered unique ability.
“I need to have a word with Kain.”
Everything else was fine, but at the very least, he had to stop them from targeting the groin. Even if Kain was a cold-blooded man with no mercy, as a fellow male he wouldn’t be able to ignore a request like this.
I lay on the floor catching my breath and opened my status window.
“Tsk— As expected, nothing’s going up.”
My growth had completely stalled. I’d expected it, but it seemed I wouldn’t be able to reach level 100 until I gained some kind of enlightenment.
“Just how the hell do you even get enlightenment?”
In the game, they just glossed over it by saying if you kept hunting monsters you’d get it naturally, so I never knew. Now that it was reality, it was driving me insane. When I asked Kain, he only said that if I kept training steadily, the time would come on its own. He gave no real advice. It was probably because it really was something that couldn’t be forced.
“Haa… guess there’s no helping it.”
No matter how much I vented, nothing would change. If anything, it was more accurate to say I had grown far too quickly up until now. Once the semester-end evaluation was over, it would be vacation. I figured I should set a goal to train like crazy during that time and reach level 100.
Of course, if I rolled around like a madman during break and still got no results, then I’d really be screwed.
“That won’t happen.”
It wouldn’t. …Probably.
June 27th. Afternoon.
With very little time left until the semester-end evaluation concluded, a big match took place. It was the bout between Skadia Maryland, the undisputed number one in the grade, and Deborah, ranked third and the disciple of the famous Grey Tower Master Roxana Sprouse.
The gymnasium was packed so tightly that there was barely room to stand. My group and I carefully navigated through the crowd so we wouldn’t get swept away, heading to the seats we had claimed earlier to look down at the arena.
Abel looked at Skadia and Deborah facing off and asked, “Who do you think will win?”
“Hmm? Wouldn’t the top ranker win? I heard she reached the 5th circle?”
At Yas’s words, most of the group nodded in agreement. But Yuni, who was also a mage, offered a slightly different opinion.
“Still, a higher circle doesn’t guarantee victory. Especially with illusion magic—it’s good at creating variables. Since she’s the disciple of Roxana Sprouse, maybe she has a hidden trump card? What do you think, Alissa?”
“…Skadia Maryland will win.”
“Can you tell us why?”
“It’s true that illusion magic can create variables. But if you prepare for it in advance, its effectiveness drops significantly. Of course, if it were high-circle magic, preparation might not matter, but Deborah is only at the 4th circle. Besides, a trump card? There’s no way she’d use something like that in a mere school match. It might save her life someday.”
“I see… That makes a lot of sense.”
I watched Alissa and Yuni debating and casually dug at my ear with a bored expression.
She doesn’t have any trump card like that.
If calling her master counted as a trump card, then maybe, but that would just get her disqualified. In the end, the odds were completely in Skadia’s favor. It seemed most people thought the same, because murmurs began to spread through the crowd.
“Skadia Maryland’s going to win, right?”
“Obviously! She’s been called a genius since she was little.”
“Yeah, I’ve never really heard anything impressive about the Grey Tower Master’s disciple. Maybe she’s actually not that great?”
People are always lenient with themselves and strict with others. The spectators went beyond simply predicting the match’s outcome and began inflating rumors about Deborah herself. I started to worry whether the timid Deborah would get hurt by all this.
Hang in there.
I silently cheered her on and kicked the two idiots in the ass.
Thud. Thud.
“Uwaaah!”
“W-what the—! What crazy bastard—!”
The two who had staggered forward turned around with bloodshot eyes, only to meet my gaze.
“L-Luan Priulri?”
“Why us…”
While there were many students from other grades who had come to watch, the majority were still first-years. And among the first-years, there wasn’t a single person who didn’t know who I was.
“You fucking idiots. It’s noisy, so shut the hell up.”
“What? B-but it’s not just us…”
“Hey, hey! Don’t engage. Let’s just go.”
“Why?! I’m right, aren’t I?!”
“Just go, damn it! There’s nothing good that comes from messing with him.”
One of them flared up while the other tried to hold him back. Their little scuffle was nothing but amusing to me.
What are you gonna do if we don’t?
They were nothing more than the sons of barons or viscounts. If they talked back to the eldest son of a marquis family, they’d earn a bad reputation among the high nobles. Even if that eldest son was a notorious scoundrel who had been half-abandoned, it didn’t change anything.
In the end, the one who looked ready to start a fight would probably shrink back the moment he actually faced me. And if he couldn’t hold back his anger and actually threw a punch? That would be a problem too. His future would become incredibly miserable.
I snorted and tried to focus on the arena again when I felt a persistent gaze and turned my head. Alissa was staring at me. The corner of her mouth slowly curled up on one side.
Alissa connected every single one of my actions to rape without exception. The problem was that I had already raped Deborah.
I absolutely cannot tell her that.
If Alissa found out I had raped Deborah too, she would immediately run off to tattle to Roxana with glee. With Roxana’s influence, she could beat me to death without any questions asked. If I wanted to live, I had to keep it a secret no matter what.
I turned my eyes away from Alissa’s gaze.
[Match Start!]
And at the same time, the match between Skadia and Deborah began.
