Chapter 369
Chapter 369
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 369
Chapter Title: Special Training (4)
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Shirone began training in earnest with the laser guidance magic.
Since he could already use lasers, the omnipotence aspect wasn't a major issue, but the omniscience part was beyond the advanced class level.
In that sense, Isabelle was a savior.
As befitting the head of the magic library, her explanations were easy to understand and never missed the point.
Light is also a type of electromagnetic wave. The laser guidance magic developed by Jacobein was an active homing system, a technique that guided a projectile to its target by observing the waves radiated when a laser collided with an object.
And for this to be possible, a laser-seeking magic called a 'seeker' had to be cast first.
"Ugh! I don't get it, I don't get it! What is this! It's basically information magic!"
Shirone looked up from the book, his face crumpled in frustration.
The page he was currently looking at described the algorithm for installing the seeker, which, from his perspective, might as well have been the language of monsters.
Across the training ground, Plu, who was reading a magic tome, clicked her tongue and spoke.
"You should have picked a tome after considering the difficulty. You have a month left. How about giving up now and finding something else?"
Shirone glared at Plu with narrowed eyes. She was so infuriating.
"But you said it would be fine at first."
"Well, I'm not saying it's impossible now either. If you grind hard, you might be able to do it in a month. But in any case, there's always a Plan B, right?"
"Hmm, Plan B..."
As Plu said, if he was going to give up, now was the time.
If he invested more time into this, he might end up having to return to the academy satisfied with only the Shotgun Movement.
"I'll just see it through to the end. I've learned a lot thanks to this, anyway. Like radio waves."
As Shirone finished speaking, Plu closed the tome she was reading and stood up.
"Alright, if that's what you think, let's get serious."
Shirone tilted his head up, following Plu's face as she approached.
"The most important thing right now is the seeker, right? The linking magic that fuses the laser and the Photon Cannon."
"Yes. But this is too difficult. I'm not good with information magic."
"It's not just information mages who use algorithms. For example, I know how to use them too."
"What? You do?"
Shirone narrowed his eyes in disbelief. Plu then grabbed her magic staff and walked to the center of the training ground. She struck the ground with it, displaying her specialty.
"Phoenix."
From the crystal orb at the end of her staff, a giant firebird rose like smoke and floated in the air.
Since no one was within its range, the firebird remained silent, only flapping its wings.
Plu pointed to herself and said.
"You, what do you think my specialty is?"
"Ah, well... Aren't you a fire mage?"
"No. Of course, I handle the fire element, but to be precise, I'm a Zoner."
Shirone, recalling Etella, tilted his head.
If the characteristics of a Zoner were a massive Spirit Zone that transcended common sense and highly acute senses, then Plu didn't seem to fit any of them.
"It's a special major, so you might not know. That's why when people hear 'Zoner,' they usually think of mages from the search-type branch. But 'Zoner' just means an expert of the Spirit Zone."
Plu held up two fingers.
"Zoners are broadly divided into the search-type and manipulation-type branches. I belong to the latter, a manipulation-type mage."
"Aha, so you manipulate that firebird."
"Right. The Phoenix fires flames at every target within the Spirit Zone. The reason it reacts much faster than synesthesia is because it employs the Dawkins algorithm. An automatic reaction of nerves and mind. The way I blocked the vampire's attack at the Gold Tower was also an automatic reaction."
Shirone's expression went blank.
Top graduate of the Royal Magic Academy and a Zoner with a special major.
That was why she was able to so precisely calibrate the golden balance of his Spirit Zone.
"It's the same for the search-type branch. If the virtue of a combat mage is durability, then Zoners are obsessed with density. But the mind isn't made of particles, so even 100 percent density doesn't mean it's completely full. It just means your sixth sense is 100 percent accurate. That's why it's really hard to raise it past 95 percent."
Plu slung her magic staff over her shoulder and moved. Shirone's head turned to follow her.
"Of course, a Zoner should basically be at 100 percent. After that, to increase clarity, we use the unit of 'specific gravity.' If you think of a normal Spirit Zone as a gas, a Zoner's Spirit Zone can reach the specific gravity of a liquid, clay, or even rock, depending on their level."
As Shirone turned to sit, Plu stopped where she was and raised a finger.
"Nevertheless, the minimum standard for a Zoner is 60 percent density. Search-type Spirit Zones are enormous. If you were to expand your Spirit Zone to a two-kilometer diameter without entering the Immortal Function, your density would drop to the 0 percent range. That's why for a Zoner, it's density, only density."
A Spirit Zone wouldn't even form if the density was in the 0 percent range anyway. But the simple comparison made it perfectly clear.
"Now, how do you search a two-kilometer radius with 60 percent density? This is where algorithms come into play. For example, using the Pisasky algorithm, you can search for metallic substances within the radius. Since it catches the reflectivity of light, its efficiency drops at night."
Shirone was struck by a novel sense of shock. If ordinary magic affected the external world, algorithms were a form of meta-magic that granted unique functions to the Spirit Zone itself.
It couldn't be the same as Schema, but mages too had developed magic to counter magic.
Just how vast was the world of magic?
His heart began to pound. It was wide. And deep. A giant playground he could spend a lifetime in without ever getting bored was spread out before his eyes.
* * *
With Plu's help, Shirone steadily learned the algorithms that went into the seeker.
It was a series of fundamentals, and for the complex advanced theories, he received intensive guidance from Isabelle.
Time flew by, and with only four days left before he had to leave the Magic Association, he barely managed to finish the omniscience stage.
"Finally. It's done."
Closing the tome, Shirone flopped onto his back. He had never studied this hard, not even at the academy.
It wasn't a matter of effort, but of biological limits.
Humans had to sleep one way or another, but the Magic Association's sleep devices allowed him to overcome that impossibility.
"I did it, I did. I really did it."
Shirone muttered in a daze. It felt as if steam were escaping from his head.
Plu, who had suffered just as much as Shirone, also looked gaunt after a month.
"...You're really something else. I told you to just give up."
Plu had been full of motivation at the beginning, but by the midpoint, she was slowly reaching her limit.
Of course, she also had to handle her duties at the Association during the day, but even considering that, Shirone's tenacity was incredible.
"Hehe! How about that? I did it, right?"
Plu protected her last shred of pride.
"No. You know what? For a normal person, it would have been physically impossible in that amount of time. You've only just finished the omniscience part. Therefore, my calculation was correct."
Shirone admitted that was true.
Just learning the omniscience part didn't mean the magic would activate.
Nevertheless, the reason he had obsessed over laser guidance to the very end was that, unlike others, he already had the omnipotence aspect down.
"Well then, shall we get started?"
As Shirone stealthily got to his feet, Plu shook her head.
"No, you can't. You're resting today, no matter what."
"But we don't have time."
"No means no! If you go into practice in that state, you'll literally die. And it won't just be you, I'll die too!"
"Then at least the sleep device..."
"That's a no too! Go to your room, now! If you don't sleep for at least eight hours tonight, I'm not helping you anymore!"
Plu pushed Shirone's back, forcing him back to his quarters.
Shirone's steps were heavy on the way back. There was no time. He was so anxious he didn't even feel sleep-deprived.
"Just a little more. Let's at least review before sleeping."
Shirone lay down on his bed with the laser guidance tome.
And fell asleep one second later.
The next afternoon.
"Aargh! I'm in big trouble!"
People passing by in the hallway turned their heads at the sound coming from inside the room.
The door burst open, and Shirone, who had washed his hair but hadn't even dried it, sprinted toward the training ground.
Only three days remained.
He had to practice today and be evaluated tomorrow to achieve his initial goal.
When he arrived at the training ground, Plu had already finished her preparations.
Shirone's eyes widened. He had overslept, but it was a time when Plu was supposed to be working.
"Huh? What's going on?"
"Did you sleep well?"
Plu checked Shirone's condition first.
"Yes. I slept so much it's driving me crazy. But what about your work? Why are you here?"
"I took a vacation. I'll be coaching you intensively for the remaining three days."
"Ah..."
Shirone's eyes welled up with moisture.
To use her vacation, the sweetest thing for a working person, for her junior's training. For today at least, she looked like an angel.
"Plu..."
Seeing Shirone approach with a strange expression, Plu recoiled like a turtle, holding out her hands.
"Wh-what's with that look! Get away from me! It's creepy!"
As Shirone kept coming closer, she couldn't bring herself to touch him and hastily backed away. Only after confirming he had stopped did she speak.
"Anyway, since I've come this far, I have to see you succeed. So let's do this properly."
Shirone's face had also turned serious.
"Yes, I'm in your hands!"
The training, which continued until midnight, was extended to the next morning with the help of the sleep capsule.
He had corrected numerous errors in the algorithm overnight, but there was still a long way to go.
"Okay, you've installed the seeker. Now, let's try the fusion properly. Can you do it?"
"Yes, I'll try."
After warming up his mind with a numerical sequence, Shirone entered his Spirit Zone.
The sequence in his head accelerated rapidly, and his eyes flew open.
'Homing Photon Cannon!'
Eight Photon Cannons materialized around Shirone. Pale, beautiful orbs of light.
The difference from before was the red dot embedded in the center of each orb.
The laser pointer, the seeker.
"Fusion successful. Now for the target acquisition algorithm."
Shirone, who was operating the seeker according to Plu's instructions, spoke with a flustered expression.
"Uh, um... what about the target?"
Plu clapped her hands together.
"Oh, right! There should be a test drone somewhere."
Plu rummaged through a supply box in the corner of the training ground. Then, as if she'd had a good idea, she turned her head.
"No, on second thought, I'll be the target myself."
She moved along the wall near the supply box and stood with her back to the eastern wall.
"You'll do it yourself?"
"Yep. We don't have time anyway. Let's skip the trivial stuff."
Shirone also thought that was more efficient.
When he aimed at Plu with his Spirit Zone, the seekers targeted her as per the algorithm.
Eight laser points dotted her body here and there.
Plu stared at the orbs floating before her and gulped.
The feeling of the seekers embedded in the center of the Photon Cannons watching her like the emotionless eyes of a monster was truly the worst.
'This... is way scarier than I thought.'
When she slowly leaned her body, the eight laser points moved in unison, following her.
When she straightened up again, the seekers unerringly changed direction. A slight shiver ran down her spine.
'It's a fast spell even on its own. And it's going to track me?'
Shirone, having finished his preparations, said.
"Plu, I'm starting..."
"Wait a minute."
Plu held out a hand. Shirone hastily stopped the spell and stared blankly.
She cleared her throat, then slyly averted her gaze and said.
"I don't think this is a good idea. Let's just use the drone."