The Secret Beneath the Great Library
Kyle blinked in surprise when he saw Yuri and Arthur waiting at the promised meeting spot in the dead mage's dungeon. He tilted his head, looking genuinely confused.
"What are you two doing here?"
"We were invited," Yuri replied calmly.
"Invited?"
"Yep."
Yuri glanced over at Sera as she spoke. Feeling both of their gazes on her, Sera let out an awkward "hehe" and scratched the back of her head.
The reason Sera had roped Yuri in was simple. Yuri's father was a mage of the Six Stars, a master-class powerhouse. As someone who had inherited that bloodline, Yuri had the potential to become a grand mage on the level of a duke or higher. The method of recruiting her had been even simpler. After Sera had already convinced Kyle to come, she'd simply made the same offer to Yuri, and the girl had followed along as naturally as a needle chasing thread.
As for bringing Arthur along, Sera had done so purely on gamer instinct. She didn't know exactly what kind of ability the cross-dressing knight possessed, but she had a gut feeling it was something valuable enough that kidnappers would target her for it.
Kyle looked at Sera, convinced that there had to be a reason she'd gathered all of them here.
"So? Why did you call us out?"
"Hehe, today we're going to uncover the Academy's secret."
"A secret?"
"That's right. A secret."
Had the Academy even had something like that? Kyle, who had spent all his time here doing nothing but grinding monsters and leveling up, had no idea what hidden elements existed or how to find them. After all, the fact that this was a game where players could do whatever they wanted also meant that some secrets would remain completely unknown to anyone who didn't stumble across them.
Sera let out another mischievous laugh and wiggled her finger.
"It's right here, I'm telling you."
She pointed at the building where they'd all gathered.
The Academy's Great Library. The place where every book and grimoire in the world was supposedly sealed away.
"Access permission confirmed. Cadet Kim Sera."
"Yessir, thank you!"
The Academy's Great Library. This place, said to house countless books and grimoires under seal, was normally somewhere regular cadets could never enter freely. The first floor, which was open to the public, allowed free access, but the underground levels where the grimoires and forbidden texts were kept were so restricted that even professors couldn't come and go easily.
Yet Sera had an access pass for those underground archives.
Yuri let out a small gasp of surprise at that revelation and immediately asked how it was possible.
"Where did you get an access pass like that?"
"From the headmaster."
"...What exactly did you do to get it?"
"That's a secret~"
Sera pressed a finger to her lips and made a shushing sound, then started walking ahead as if she'd been here dozens of times before. The rest of the party watched her with puzzled expressions, eventually gathering together to whisper among themselves.
"...Isn't something weird about this?"
"Yeah, it's strange... She acts like she's been here a million times..."
While Yuri and Arthur were quietly gossiping, Sera, who had been confidently leading the way, suddenly stopped in front of a particular bookshelf. She whipped around and frowned slightly when she saw the group ignoring her and chatting among themselves.
"Hey, what are you guys talking about behind my back?"
"Nothing."
"Yeah. It's nothing."
"...I feel like I'm being bullied here. Whatever, it's fine."
Sera turned back to the bookshelf and started tapping on it lightly.
"Alright, everyone. What do you think is the most important thing for a mage?"
"Stars," Yuri answered immediately.
"How well you can handle mana?" Arthur suggested.
"Creativity," Kyle added.
All sorts of answers flew out, but Sera shook her head, telling them they were all wrong. While those things were certainly important in magic, the single most crucial factor was...
"Taking two actions in one turn!"
"What?"
"Casting two spells at the exact same time. That's what matters most—!"
Double Casting. It was something no mage had ever successfully achieved. A high-level mage could demonstrate several lower-tier spells simultaneously without much trouble, but that wasn't true Double Casting. The real thing—the dream of every mage—was to calculate and cast two spells of the exact same level at once.
When she said it out loud, Yuri let out a dry laugh.
"That's impossible."
"Huh? Why?"
"Because Double Casting is... theoretically nonsense."
A one-star mage could alter one law of reality at a time. If a one-star mage wanted to use two spells simultaneously, what would they need to do? Alter two laws at once. Exactly. All they had to do was raise their level and become a two-star mage. If a one-star mage could change two laws at the same time, that simply meant they were already a two-star mage.
And that was only at the lower levels. As one's level increased, the required power grew exponentially. At three stars and above, Double Casting was theoretically impossible.
But Sera just smirked.
"I'm not talking about theory here."
"...Then what?"
"I'm talking about supernatural abilities. In other words, Force."
"But Force is an innate ability you're born with," Yuri shot back, as if scolding Sera for not knowing basic common sense.
Sera, however, simply smacked the bookshelf she'd been leaning against and grinned.
"What if there was a way to obtain that Force after birth?"
"No way. There's no such thing!"
"Common sense exists to be broken."
Saying that, Sera took three steps into the bookshelf aisle and stared at the seventh drawer from where she stood. She reached out with a groan, but realized her hand couldn't reach and gave Kyle a meaningful glance. Kyle sighed, stepped behind her, and pulled the book out for her.
The moment the dust-covered book was opened, a brilliant light burst out and swallowed the entire party.
When they emerged from the light that felt like an event horizon, the scenery around them had completely changed. Their eyes sparkled with excitement.
"This place..."
"This is exactly where the mage who researched Double Casting hid his secrets!"
Sera spread both arms wide and shouted.
"It's the Great Magic Cave!"
The others stared at her blankly for a moment before one of them finally spoke up, as if they couldn't let this slide.
"...How on earth did you know about something like this?"
"Th-the headmaster told me, obviously."
"Riiight?"
It was a lie. Yuri could tell immediately. But before questioning whether it was true or not, there was something more important to confirm.
Whether the secret of Double Casting truly lay hidden here.
The Great Magic Cave was, as its name suggested, a dungeon left behind by a mage who had dedicated his life to magical research. Inside wandered the test subjects the mage had kidnapped for his experiments, along with the vengeful spirit of the mage himself, who had died before completing his work.
These ghosts were incredibly annoying. They couldn't be touched by physical attacks, yet they attacked one-sidedly. But this party had Kyle.
An Aura Master who could cut down even spiritual beings.
—Kiiiyaaaaaaaah!
"Nice! Keep it up!"
Sera cheered as the ghosts were sliced apart effortlessly by Kyle's Aura Blade. When she'd come here in the game, those damn ghosts had been an absolute pain. Physical attacks didn't work, magic attacks were dodged, and if you brought an all-mage party, skeletons would spawn and ruin everything. It had been an utterly broken, scummy dungeon.
But once you brought an Aura Master along, all those problems vanished like they'd never existed.
He's seriously overpowered...
Sera was curious how Kyle had even become an Aura Master in the first place, but whenever she asked, he would just say something like "I worked hard" and never gave a proper answer. She wanted to dig through his logs and see what kind of life he'd lived, but this world wasn't actually a game. It was reality built on a game framework.
As Yuri watched Kyle swing his Aura Blade around and hunt ghosts, she spoke up cautiously.
"Kyle."
"Yeah? What's up?"
"You hid it from me, but you showed it right away in front of her."
"...She already knew about it."
"Really?"
Yuri looked at Sera with sharp, questioning eyes. Feeling that piercing gaze, Sera quickly nodded in confirmation. Yuri wasn't exactly happy that more and more people were learning secrets she herself hadn't known about. At the same time, she felt a strange joy that more people were realizing how amazing her fiancé was. Conflicting emotions swirled inside her, leaving her feeling utterly confused.
While Yuri wrestled with those feelings, the party finally reached the deepest part of the Great Magic Cave.
Creak— The door opened, and just like before, a single ghost came flying out.
—Welcome, seeker of truth...
Slash—!
"Huh?"
The blue Aura Blade sliced straight through the grand mage's spirit the moment it appeared. Sera whipped around to stare at Kyle with a look that screamed what the hell are you doing?
Kyle, receiving her gaze, simply tilted his head in confusion.
"What?"
"N-no, I mean... what are you doing right now..."
"Was I not supposed to kill it?"
Having reflexively cut down the grand mage's spirit the same way he'd been killing every other ghost, Kyle looked back at Sera and asked. Sera quietly nodded.
We're fucked.
Normally, the grand mage's spirit that appeared like this would test whether the visitor was worthy of the magic he'd left behind, then grant them the ability to Double Cast—the power people called Force. Of course, in the game there had never been an option to attack the grand mage, so Sera had no idea what would happen if you killed him.
"Ah... aaaaah..."
This was bad. The realization hit Sera like a truck. She trembled and collapsed to the floor. Meanwhile, Kyle scratched his head while looking at her, then started scanning the room to see if the grand mage's spirit had left anything behind.
And then—
The sharp senses of an Aura Master picked up on the subtle flow of air inside the chamber.
"There's something here."
"What? No way..."
Ignoring Sera's hollow cry, Kyle walked over to the wall and swung his sword. The Aura Blade mercilessly shattered the solid barrier. As soon as the blocked section was cut away, the wall began to crumble as if it had been waiting for this moment.
Beyond the collapsed wall was a small room filled with countless books, papers, and magical circles.
"...Huh?"
It was the dead mage's private laboratory.