Chapter 370
Chapter 370
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 370
Chapter Title: Special Training (5)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Plu rummaged through the supply box again and pulled out a heavy drone with both hands.
It flew using magnetism synchronized with the training grounds, making its trajectory extremely erratic and perfect for a homing experiment.
“Let's start with level one. Get a feel for it.”
Shirone aimed the laser pointer at the drone. When Plu flipped the switch, the drone vibrated, left his hands, and shot into the air.
The laser pointer tracked the drone's trajectory. Then, in an instant, all eight projectiles shot out.
It was slower than the standard Photon Cannon, but as expected of a photon-based spell, its speed was nothing to scoff at.
Shirone anxiously watched the Homing Photon Cannon.
As the drone grazed the wall at an angle and slipped past, the eight Photon Cannons curved simultaneously and struck the target.
A series of explosions erupted, and through the smoke, the drone bounced out and rolled across the floor.
“It worked! Success!”
Even though he had cast the spell himself, he couldn't believe it.
Light, bending.
He had even felt a thrill when the Photon Cannons made a sharp curve in front of the wall.
Plu also thought it wasn't a bad start.
“A good start. But it's not ready for actual combat yet. A level one drone can be hit easily enough with a regular Photon Cannon. Let's set the passing standard with that in mind. You need to hit a drone that's difficult to take down with a regular Photon Cannon using the Homing Photon Cannon.”
“Yes! I'll definitely make it work!”
Having succeeded in the first test, Shirone's heart burned with unprecedented passion.
The difficulty increased step by step, and finally, it was the day before he was to leave the Magic Association.
Facing his final evaluation, Shirone's numerical formula processing was reaching its fastest speed ever.
Plu, waiting with the drone in hand, looked as tense as he was invested.
“Ready? This is level seven mode. Maximum trajectory limit of 27 degrees. This is the kind of movement a pro-level mage deals with.”
“Yes. It needs to be at least that good to be useful in a real fight. I'm ready.”
Shirone deployed the Homing Photon Cannon more skillfully than before. Without fail, eight laser pointers aimed at the drone.
The algorithm had become so precise that the aiming points were now concentrated on a single spot.
“Starting.”
As soon as Plu pressed the switch, he let go of the drone and stepped back.
The metal hunk, which had been vibrating intensely, flew through the air with lightness and flexibility.
Its trajectory, governed by magnetism, was certainly unfamiliar to human eyes accustomed to gravity. However, the Homing Photon Cannons vibrating around Shirone relentlessly turned their red eyes, tracking the drone to the very end.
‘Let's go! I'll end it here!’
The eight Homing Photon Cannons left Shirone's side and chased the drone. When the drone changed direction, almost reversing, they made a rough curve and sped off in the opposite direction.
A total of nine flying objects zipped back and forth across the spacious training grounds, but Shirone simply stared straight ahead.
For three seconds, a chase ensued.
In terms of speed, the Photon Cannons were faster, but the drone used sharp drifts to shorten the distance, managing to evade them.
But the seekers never lost sight of the drone, and finally, the distance began to close.
The lead Photon Cannon struck the drone, which bounced off the floor with a clang.
Then, the remaining seven Photon Cannons all dove towards the ground, continuously bombarding the rolling drone.
BOOM! BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
Plu's eyes widened as he shouted.
“Whoa! That was freaking...! No, I mean, that was amazing!”
The precision to pursue a drone even after it was knocked away by impact. Moreover, the power was strong enough to crumple solid metal.
It wasn't just viable for combat; anyone caught off guard by it would be utterly pulverized.
Shirone, too, couldn't believe the result.
‘Magic... is truly endless.’
Finally grasping the reality of his achievement, Shirone turned to Plu with eyes full of emotion.
Their gazes met for a moment, and then, without a word, they both ran, embraced, and jumped for joy.
“Success! It's a success, senior!”
“You did it! It would've felt awful if you'd failed! I'm finally free!”
The shouts of the two, lost in their excitement, echoed through the training grounds. Only a single, crumpled drone seemed to watch them with a pathetic gaze.
***
The final night at the Magic Association had arrived.
Shirone received a summons from Plu and headed to the first-floor waiting room.
The empty hallway, a stark contrast to the bustling daytime atmosphere, felt desolate.
“But why the waiting room? We could have just met in my room.”
At the end of the corridor behind the first-floor lobby, light was seeping from under a door. The darkness was silent, and not a single voice could be heard.
“Hello?”
As Shirone opened the door and peeked inside, a paper popper went off with a *pop*.
Startled, he stepped back, and the door swung open to reveal the smiling faces of four people.
“Congratulations, Shirone!”
“Huh? What's this?”
A cake was set up in the middle of the waiting room, with Plu, Gando, Isabelle, and Kangnan gathered around the table.
Plu lit the candles with a snap of his fingers. Then he beckoned him to come in.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and blow them out.”
Shirone walked forward as if in a daze.
“Um, is it a special day today?”
“It is. The day you complete your observation at the Magic Association. Come on, come on! Hurry up.”
As Shirone blew out the candles, everyone applauded.
Completing his observation at the Magic Association. It sounded rather grand, but the more he thought about it, the more embarrassed he felt.
“Thank you. But it's just an observation, nothing special.”
Isabelle brushed back her straight hair and said.
He had only ever seen her looking neat and tidy at work, so seeing her with her hair down was far more alluring.
“Still, this is the Magic Association. We couldn't just send off our longest-staying observer without a proper farewell. I heard your training went well, too. Plu said it was impressive. Congratulations.”
Plu added another reason.
“And you've turned nineteen, right? Think of it as a birthday celebration too.”
“Oh, right!”
He had been so engrossed in his training that he hadn't even realized the year had changed. The countless events of the past year coalesced into a single mass of emotion, a mass far larger than any he had felt in his entire life.
Kangnan, who had been standing at a distance, extended a small box over Isabelle's shoulder.
“Congratulations, Shirone. This is a gift from the Association.”
“Ah, thank you. But what is it?”
He had a connection with the people here, but there was no reason for the Association itself to care about an observer. Sensing Gaold's presence behind this, Shirone was cautious, wondering if there was some hidden meaning.
“It's just a present. Open it.”
When he opened the box, he found a sparkling silver signet ring. It was about three centimeters wide, with a magic circle engraved in the center.
“Huh? Isn't this a Kubrick?”
Shirone turned his head at Plu's words.
“A Kubrick?”
“A two-dimensional ring. All Association employees have one. You know what a 2D ring is, right?”
“No, I don't.”
Having grown so quickly, Shirone knew little about magical tools.
“It's a ring that stores items using scale magic. They're sold at alchemy guilds, but they're quite expensive. Besides, the ones the Association gives out have a more sophisticated encryption system than regular Kubricks, so they're pretty decent.”
A ring that stored items in a subspace would naturally be expensive.
But what Shirone liked most was the Tormia Magic Association seal engraved on the inside of the ring.
No matter how expensive a Kubrick was, the Association's seal was not something money could buy.
Isabelle took the ring and placed it on Shirone's ring finger.
“The principle is the same as other magical artifacts. It reacts to the Spirit Zone. Plu, could you get the magic control device here...”
Plu went out into the hallway and shut off only the magic control device for the waiting room they were in.
The head of the magic archives had requested it, the security chief had approved it, and the head of the secretariat had tacitly agreed, so there was no problem.
When Plu returned, Shirone entered the Spirit Zone.
A unique magical energy he had never felt before was transmitted through his synesthesia. When he focused his mind on it, letters appeared before his eyes.
“User Registration? Yes, No?”
Shirone looked around as if asking them to look too, and everyone tried to hold back their laughter.
“Um, this...”
Plu said, his cheeks puffing up as he suppressed a laugh.
“You see the letters, right? Only you can see them. They're projected onto your retina via your brainwaves.”
Shirone recalled the drone he had gifted to Tess in Heaven.
It must have used a similar technology to the one that projected the view from the sky onto her retina.
Once the registration was complete, a circle divided into seven pie-like slots appeared. The slots were all the same size, and the border of the topmost slot was glowing red.
Even though he knew no one else could see it, Shirone pointed at a slot.
“Do items go in here?”
Isabelle said.
“That's right. You can store up to a total of 45 kilograms, based on the gravity here. If you put 45 kilograms in one slot, you won't be able to store anything in the remaining six.”
“Whoa, 45 kilograms?”
That was enough to hold a standard military pack. Plus, it would reduce the weight of food on long journeys, making it an incredibly convenient tool.
“Let's practice. First, pick an item to store.”
“Ah, then this...”
Shirone drew the Armang he wore at his waist.
Carrying a sword as a commoner had always bothered him, but it was also inconvenient for a mage to move around with a piece of metal attached.
“Alright. I'll teach you how. No need to be nervous. It's as easy as the four cardinal methods.”
He let out a dry laugh at the claim that the four cardinal methods were easy, but he figured it was just by the standards of a Grade 3 Archmage and let it go.
“The Kubrick uses perception, a part of the mind, to distinguish objects. It's a key concept of the Formless Arts. Because you recognize the sword in your hand as a complete object, the Kubrick also separates the sword from the world. Therefore, you can't store only a part of the sword.”
“Because I don't perceive it as a complete object.”
“Correct. Next is storing and retrieving. It's simple. You touch the ring to the object and think. When your thoughts change, the properties of the Spirit Zone also change subtly, and the Kubrick recognizes that subtle difference to operate. That's why you can't store living things. Even the mind of a tiny creature alters the Spirit Zone. In other words, from the Kubrick's perspective, it's a foreign substance.”
Shirone nodded repeatedly, marveling at the Kubrick's sensitivity.
“I'll try it now.”
He held the Armang and thought of storing it, and the sword vanished as if by magic.
He could see the Armang, now lacking its three-dimensional form, stored in the Kubrick's slot.
‘Now, to retrieve it.’
When the Armang appeared in front of his palm, he reflexively gripped the hilt.
Finding it fun, Shirone tested the same function a dozen more times. Once he got the hang of it, he truly understood what an amazing item it was.
Plu added an explanation.
“If you go to a fairly large alchemy guild in the city, you can upgrade the weight capacity. Up to 100 kilograms, it's about 200 gold per kilogram. Beyond that, the price per unit gets much higher, and exceeding 400 kilograms costs hundreds of millions.”
“Wow, that's incredible.”
The price was one thing, but the weight capacity was also beyond imagination. With 400 kilograms, it was, with a slight exaggeration, like carrying all your household belongings on your finger.
“It means there's that much demand. Of course, it's also technically difficult to augment. The current limit for storage capacity is probably around 800 kilograms. An item so rare there might be only one in the entire kingdom.”
Shirone was simply pleased. Whether it was 800 kilograms or not, he liked the ring he was wearing the most.
It was a Kubrick stamped with the Magic Association's seal.
Gando said.
“No matter how convenient it is, it's best not to store important items in it unless you're traveling.”
“Why is that? Do things disappear or something...?”
Kangnan shook his head.
“No. Because it can be stolen. Of course, the Association-made Kubricks have a complex encryption system, so the risk of extraction is low. But anyone can just cut off your whole finger.”
Shirone unknowingly covered the ring with his other hand.
“Yes, I'll protect it with my life.”
“No need for that. If you're in a dangerous situation, just throw it away or give it up. A Kubrick isn't an objet d'art; you can always get another one on the market.”
It was advice only Kangnan, the second-in-command of the Magic Association, could give.
“Anyway, that's what it is. If you want to become a proper mage, you need to know how to handle something like this.”
Shirone heard Gaold's voice in Kangnan's final words.
If he was going to Heaven, a Kubrick would be essential. It was unspoken pressure to be fully prepared for everything, from the important to the trivial.
“Yes, I will definitely become a mage.”
Shirone held up the hand wearing the Kubrick. Between his fingers, everyone was smiling.