Chapter 294
Chapter 294
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 295
Chapter Title: Aerial Bombardment
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After releasing the binding magic, I checked my remaining mana.
Having fought non-stop for over 30 minutes, it was starting to run dangerously low.
In fact, making it this far was already a miracle.
If not for the [Blessing of the Unreal], I never would have gotten here.
“......Hmm.”
So, what now?
Roughly 30 left.
If I use Blessing of Great Nature and Battle Will, I might manage somehow.
The problem was Shin Young-jun, who hadn’t shown his face for a while.
He should be appearing any moment now—where the hell was he?
“Phew...”
I slowly exhaled and looked at those encircling me.
Their gazes held disbelief and shock.
Like staring at a disaster-class beast that had appeared downtown.
Eyes filled with terror at an unfathomable unknown they couldn’t possibly oppose.
Jung Min-woo, who had cast the binding magic, looked especially like that.
His lifelong honed magic hadn’t just failed—it had been perfectly dismantled in two seconds, so the shock must have been immense.
“......Hey. Jung Min-woo. You cast that binding spell right?”
Then, a female student next to him asked with a stiff expression.
“......I did it right. Didn’t you see his feet get bound earlier?”
“No, then how’d he break it so easily?”
“I don’t know. I can’t understand it either.”
Jung Min-woo muttered in a hollow voice.
Pretending to be at ease, I scanned the atmosphere around me.
Not that I’d aimed for it, but dismantling that binding spell had clearly crushed their momentum.
Momentum plays a huge role in battle outcomes, so regardless, this was a good situation for me.
In that case, maybe I could buy some time to recover mana by capitalizing on this mood.
[Latent Trait, ‘Overimmersion’ activates!]
I smirked at them.
The kind of arrogant expression that said, “Is that all you’ve got?”
I was doing this to instill ‘fear’ in them—as if dealing with you all was no big deal.
Then, I manifested a neutral orb above my right hand and took a step forward.
Sensing the shift in mood, they realized the gravity of the situation and backpedaled.
Thanks to Overimmersion, they wouldn’t even suspect I was acting.
“Hey...... is that guy really the same year as us?”
“Damn, I don’t know. Even Lee Seo-jun shouldn’t be this strong.”
“Tch, should we run now......”
As everyone trembled in anxiety,
“Hey, hey! It’s just one guy. Why are you all chickening out?!”
An unknown muscular male student boldly stepped forward.
“We’ve got more numbers—let’s attack first—”
Bam!
The spell from my hand shot toward his head. At the same time, a massive boom rang out, and he vanished.
“..!”
Somewhere, I heard someone holding their breath.
In fact, for this attack, I’d used more mana than usual to leave a strong impression on them.
And right now, in this standoff, my mana was secretly recovering bit by bit.
For reference, thanks to all my various recovery effects, my mana regenerates much faster than others even without using Heart of Great Nature.
I gave them a chilling smile and said,
“Listen up. Anyone who surrenders to me now, I’ll guarantee at least a minimum ranking for.”
“......What?”
Murmurs rippled through them.
“But if you don’t surrender now, you’re out right here. Especially whoever charges me first—I’ll eliminate them on the spot.”
The students looked flustered at my words.
“......W-what do we do?”
“Should we surrender now? We have to avoid the bottom ranks......”
Thanks to Overimmersion’s effect, they took my words at face value.
I laughed inwardly.
“I’ll give you exactly 10 seconds. 10, 9, 8......”
Right then.
An enormously powerful mana surged from behind me. At the same time, [Killing Intent Detection] triggered.
It was the strongest mana I’d sensed in this exam.
Instinctively, I spun around and poured all my mana into erecting a barrier.
Then, a blinding light hit, followed by a powerful impact slamming into my body.
Boom—!
A spear infused with immense mana was embedded in the center of the barrier.
The barrier shook violently, shoving my body backward.
I’d barely blocked the attack, but the spear’s mana-charged force showed no sign of stopping.
It kept pushing against the barrier, as if determined to pierce through.
Crack, craaaack......
Cracks began forming at the barrier’s center. It was starting to give way to the spear’s power.
“Urk!”
What kind of power is this......
Immense.
Gritting my teeth, I squeezed out every last drop of my dwindling mana.
About three seconds passed like that. My remaining mana was completely depleted.
The barrier trembled unstably, unable to withstand the vast mana energy pouring from the spear tip.
In the end, the barrier shattered like broken glass.
Whoosh!
Luckily, the spear had lost its power and clattered to the ground.
If its force had been just a bit stronger, I might really have been in danger.
I turned my gaze toward where the spear had come from.
Only one person at the Magical Academy could perform a spear-throw attack like that.
“......Shin Young-jun.”
At my call, Shin Young-jun smiled from afar as he walked over.
He reached out, and the fallen spear returned to his hand.
It was the ‘owner binding’ effect most throwing spears had.
“As expected of Kim Sun-woo. You blocked that. My finisher, and all.”
Shin Young-jun said with a smile.
That attack definitely had the overwhelming power worthy of being called a finisher.
That’s because ‘spear-throw’ magic inherently possesses greater force than most manifestation spells, thanks to the medium.
Everyone around turned their eyes to Shin Young-jun.
“......Shin Young-jun?”
Shin Young-jun glanced around at everyone and said,
“You all saw it, right? That barrier just collapsed. He’s out of mana.”
His tone implied we were all on the same team.
I felt a moment of absurdity watching him.
“You with them too?”
“I only found out late during the exam, so not exactly partners, but we formed a temporary alliance since our goals aligned.”
Shin Young-jun shrugged.
“And our overall rankings are just one spot apart—I’m not about to let third place slip away easily.”
I looked at Shin Young-jun with mixed feelings.
His intervention had skyrocketed the difficulty.
Then, commotion stirred around us again.
“But is it true Kim Sun-woo’s out of mana?”
The students’ eyes turned back to me.
Shin Young-jun nodded and said,
“Yeah, you saw the barrier collapse earlier.”
“True, he’s been fighting non-stop for over 30 minutes. It’s about time his mana hit bottom.”
“Wow, 30 minutes is insanely long though, right? He didn’t even seem tired—I thought he had infinite mana at one point.”
As they said, the barrier spell had used up the last of my mana.
Right now, I didn’t have the power to even make a small mana orb.
Then, Shin Young-jun gripped his spear and took stance.
“Alright, Kim Sun-woo. Third place overall will have to wait. Let’s go!”
With those words, everyone charged at me.
The circle around me tightened, leaving no room to escape.
But this situation was exactly what I’d wanted.
I activated Heart of Great Nature.
Thump!
My depleted mana rapidly recovered.
That’s when I spotted Shin Young-jun thrusting his spear at me.
The spear tip gleamed blindingly with mana.
The spear shot toward me once more like a laser.
I gathered mana and deployed a circular barrier.
Bam—!
The wide circular barrier spread out, disrupting the encircling forces closing in on me.
Amid the crumbling formation, Shin Young-jun blocked the barrier with his spear tip, his face shocked.
“......What? His mana was definitely gone earlier.”
Shin Young-jun muttered in disbelief as he pushed back the barrier with his spear tip.
As expected, the guy’s raw power was brutally strong.
With no choice, I activated Battle Will.
[All stats increase by 30%.]
The effects of Battle Will and Blessing of the Unreal overlapped, and an enormous power began surging through my body.
A strength I’d never felt before.
With all stats boosted by 60%, my body didn’t even feel like my own.
And the force from the spear tip felt manageable now, unlike before.
Using the barrier, I completely pushed back Shin Young-jun.
“Urk!”
In the end, he was forced to retreat under the barrier’s pressure.
Then, I concentrated mana into my toes. I jumped, cratering the ground as my body rocketed into the sky.
Whoosh!
The ones encircling me in a circle looked up.
“......What’s with him? Wasn’t his mana depleted?”
“Feels like he has even more mana than before......?”
“What the hell is that guy?”
Floating in the air, I manifested magic.
With Battle Will and Heart of Great Nature active.
Three minutes from now, I’d really be powerless, so I had to end this fast.
I extended my hand toward the ground.
At the same time, countless neutral orbs manifested behind me.
Like unleashing a mana downpour, I bombarded the ground with spells.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
The magic sprayed wildly at the ground like bullets from a machine gun.
“Argh!”
[Acquire 80 points.]
[Acquire 80 points.]
[Acquire 80 points.]
Messages popped up before my eyes.
Their numbers dwindled under my assault.
“Argh!”
“Hold out! He’ll come down to the ground soon!”
“Attack when he does!”
They belatedly raised barriers to block my attacks.
But with my near-infinite mana, I kept firing at their barriers without pause.
As the onslaught continued, their barriers began crumbling—they couldn’t hold.
Now was my chance.
I focused mana again to resume the bombardment.
Right then, my airborne body lost power and started falling back to the ground.
“He’s coming down!”
“Prepare binding magic!”
Mana circles formed above the support mages’ hands.
But I had no intention of playing along with their plan.
I activated Air Walk.
I stepped on the air and leaped high into the sky again.
Some students looked up in bewilderment.
“......W-what was that?! Did he just step on air and jump?”
“Damn, he’s gone and started flying now.”
Back in the air, I looked down at the ground.
There was a technique I wanted to test, and this seemed like the perfect moment.
I concentrated my mind and gathered mana. A magic circle manifested before my palm.
I imbued it with data.
Coordinates, attribute, range......
Then, a magic circle appeared beneath me, and a neutral orb plummeted toward the ground.
Boom!
“Argh!”
Screams followed.
Soon, magic circles proliferated beneath me.
Using Air Walk, I kicked off the ground—er, air—and jumped into the sky again.
“C-crazy!”
“I-it’s a rain of mana!”
From my position in the air, a mana downpour began bombarding the ground.
Mana Rain is a spell you can never use when close to enemies due to self-damage risk, but from up here? Totally different story.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
The mana rain began devastating the ground.
The downpour viewed from the sky held a different beauty than from below.
“Uwaaah!”
Screams kept coming. They tried blocking with barriers, but as I said earlier, defense has limits.
[Acquire 80 points.]
[Acquire 80 points.]
[Acquire 80 points.]
[Acquire 80 points.]
Messages kept appearing.
In no time, the ground was shrouded in dust storms from the bombardment—visibility zero.
It took less than five seconds.
Mana Rain and Air Walk timed out, and I landed on the ground.
Tap.
“Phew......”
I slowly looked around.
The sandstorm completely obscured everything.
I used wind magic to blow away the dust storm before me.
Whoosh!
The ground was total chaos.
No screams, no signs of life.
And...... no sign of Kim Choong-beom either.
He’d promised to get me to 300 points, but he must’ve gotten swept up and eliminated.
“......Feels kinda bad now.”
“Urk!”
Then, a voice came from behind.
Turning, I saw Shin Young-jun clutching his shoulder in agony.
Looks like he was the only one left.
But in that state, he couldn’t keep fighting.
Shin Young-jun laughed in disbelief.
“......This is ridiculous. Even Lee Seo-jun wasn’t this much.”