Placement Exam (3)

Song Cheon-hye stared silently at Seo Ye-in across the arena, then drew a single glove from her coat and slipped it onto her right hand.

A black glove embroidered with golden thread, studded with topazes so fine they looked like grains of sand.

It had to be a signature artifact of the Topaz Magic Tower.

She'd fought the spear-wielding boy barehanded, after all — apparently she intended to take the final placement match more seriously.

Seo Ye-in, meanwhile, wore something like a strap over her uniform shirt, which on closer inspection turned out to be a holster for a pistol.

And there was a pistol in each holster — two in total.

Shin Byung-cheol looked at them and asked me,

"Huh, now that I look at her, she's a Gunslinger? Did you know?"

"No. First I'm hearing of it too."

Gunslinger. Or gunner.

A ranged class that subdues enemies with mana-infused rounds.

Appearances can be deceiving, though — I hadn't expected Seo Ye-in to be a Gunslinger either.

Then again, we'd only known each other for a day, and half of that I'd only ever seen her slumped over, dead asleep.

It's hard to picture the agile, target-piercing image of a Gunslinger from that.

Shin Byung-cheol observed both sides with apparent interest.

"Well, this just got interesting. A Gunslinger's a total counter to a mage, right? Sixty-forty? Seventy-thirty? Song Cheon-hye could actually lose this one."

"Hard to say. We'll have to keep watching."

"Aw, come on. Even if it's the Topaz Magic Tower, she can't lose unless the Gunslinger at least knows her basics, right?"

"Want to bet on it, then?"

At the word bet, Shin Byung-cheol bared his teeth in a grin.

"Aha, a bet. I'm always in. What are we putting down?"

"5 silver."

"Okay. 5 silver's a bit steep, but that's what makes it exciting."

"Then you're on Seo Ye-in, and I'm on Song Cheon-hye."

"Call."

I dumped my entire fortune of 5 silver onto the line.

Soon to be doubled.

The scoreboard displayed both fighters' health and the remaining time, then began the countdown.

[3]

[2]

[1]

[Start!]

The instant the match began, a pistol was already in each of Seo Ye-in's hands.

The pistols took turns spitting blue light.

— Tatatatatat!

Song Cheon-hye didn't even attempt to dodge the hail of magic bullets.

She simply extended her ungloved hand forward.

As if to say, come this far and stop.

— Bzzt-crack! Bzzzt-crack!

Sparks scattered ceaselessly just short of her outstretched palm.

The magic bullets were being stopped by a barrier Song Cheon-hye had deployed.

Shin Byung-cheol's eyes went round at the sight.

"Huh? Why are they getting blocked? That's not supposed to happen!"

'This is exactly why you keep watching.'

The mana Seo Ye-in packed into each round was above average, but Song Cheon-hye's total mana reserves were simply on another level.

That's how much mana she poured into every single spell — her E-rank Hummingbird looked like a D-rank one.

Even the simple barrier spell she was using now was nearly twice as thick as normal.

That was why the magic bullets that should have bored lightly into the barrier instead lost their momentum mid-flight and scattered.

While holding the barrier up with one hand, Song Cheon-hye raised two hummingbirds of lightning with the other.

The two hummingbirds cut across the empty air.

Seo Ye-in swung her gun barrel, which had been rattling the barrier with continuous fire, toward the Hummingbirds.

— Tatatatat!

She succeeded in intercepting one, but the other was still perfectly intact.

Seo Ye-in's new model slid smoothly to the side, evading the Hummingbird.

But when Song Cheon-hye waved her hand like a seasoned conductor, the hummingbird wheeled through the air and dove at its target once more.

— Tatatatatat!

The pistols roared again.

Even with one wing torn away, the hummingbird lost none of its speed, tracing a line of lightning straight into Seo Ye-in.

— Crackling zap!

"……!"

Seo Ye-in's brow creased, ever so slightly.

Whatever she wore offered decent protection, because she wasn't incapacitated on the spot — but her movements had slowed noticeably.

— Boom!

Song Cheon-hye, preparing a thick bolt of lightning as a follow-up, suddenly froze.

A cloud of thick smoke had obscured her vision.

She had clearly judged that Seo Ye-in wouldn't be able to dodge the Hummingbird, and quickly tossed out a smoke grenade in advance.

Shin Byung-cheol nodded with satisfaction.

"Excellent judgment! That just bought her some time."

"The key is how fast she clears the smoke."

After all, hurling lightning blindly into smoke she couldn't see through was guaranteed to fizzle.

But it seemed Song Cheon-hye intended to try something else before clearing the smoke.

The structure of the spell twisted on the surface of her glove in an instant, transforming into something different — the lightning bolt split into several electrical spheres the size of baseballs.

Song Cheon-hye hurled them all into the smoke at once.

— Crack! Bzzt-crack! Bzzzt-crack!

Judging by the drop in health, one or two of them had connected — but she was still far from subduing her opponent.

Song Cheon-hye cast a wind spell to sweep the smoke away.

An empty arena.

There was no trace of Seo Ye-in anywhere.

And the next moment,

— THOOM—!

With a heavy impact, Song Cheon-hye's new model staggered sideways.

A powerful, unidentified strike had flown in from somewhere on her right.

Once she barely regained her balance and studied the direction the attack had come from, a transparent, heat-haze-like something was wriggling there.

It looked like an invisible thicket or pile of leaves stirring in the breeze.

Shin Byung-cheol let out a whistle.

"Wow…… an Optical Camouflage Ghillie Suit? That girl must be loaded."

An optical camouflage ghillie suit.

At the very least C-rank, and one blessed by a master craftsman's hands could fetch an A-rank — a rare item indeed.

So needless to say, the price was astronomically high.

It was astonishing enough that a student — a first-year, no less — owned one, but I was paying attention to something else entirely.

"She ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠switched to a rifle."

"Pistols won't cut it, obviously."

For a Gunslinger to deal damage to a spellcaster, she'd have to pick a single point in the magic barrier and punch through it — but when the caster's mana reserves were as bottomless as this, that became extremely difficult.

In such cases, rather than spraying a barrage from two pistols, swapping to a rifle that hit much harder in one shot was the correct call.

The magic bullets from Seo Ye-in's rifle seemed to favor destructive force over penetration.

Cannonball-like blows meant to crush a barrier-deploying mage shell and all.

— ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠THOOM—!

Once again, Song Cheon-hye's body slid backward.

This time the shot had come from dead ahead.

Deciding this couldn't go on, Song Cheon-hye hastily cast her next spell.

Another layer of current was draped over her magic barrier.

— THOOM!

The third round slammed into the barrier.

Thanks to the reinforcement, she wasn't shoved back the way she had been, but the shock still carried through to her insides.

Song Cheon-hye frowned slightly at the dizziness.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Honestly, I was on the fence about this one, but at this rate Seo Ye-in really might win."

"Keep watching."

Let effective hits accumulate little by little like this, and the mage loses.

But the reason I kept telling him to watch was that I still had full confidence in my bet.

Topaz Magic Tower, of all places — among the countless spells she'd learned there, was there really no way to break this stalemate?

Dozens of options were springing to my mind this very second.

"……"

Song Cheon-hye heaved a resigned sigh, then produced a second glove from her coat and fitted it over her empty hand.

She pressed her hands together, fingers interlaced, then stretched them wide apart like someone working with thread —

Dozens of thin threads of electricity sprang into being between her hands.

Song Cheon-hye began spreading them wide in every direction.

"There we go. Clever girl."

"What's that thing?"

"Simply put? It's a spiderweb. You string it all up like that and wait for someone to walk into it."

Just as I'd described, it wasn't long before the entire Circular Colosseum was blanketed in Lightning Thread.

— Bzzt-crack!

And there was a reaction.

In one corner of the arena, faint sparks crackled to life above the transparent, wriggling shape.

The moment her position was pinpointed, Seo Ye-in's rifle roared —

— THOOM—!

But Song Cheon-hye was not the type to eat the same attack four times in a row.

Least of all when the sniper's position was plainly visible.

She concentrated every magic barrier onto a single face and stopped the magic bullet without taking so much as a scratch.

— Boom!

Deciding it was pointless now, Seo Ye-in stripped off the camo ghillie suit, threw it aside, and popped another smoke grenade.

But from Song Cheon-hye's perspective, there was no longer any need to clear this smoke.

The sparks kept crackling away, after all, calmly broadcasting her opponent's rough location.

Another Hummingbird crossed the arena.

Only one this time, but noticeably larger.

And its movements were far more erratic.

A zigzag mixed with spirals — Seo Ye-in couldn't react in time.

— Bzzzt-crack!

'Some progress, at least.'

By my standards, that was worth maybe 30 points out of 100.

Until a moment ago, she wouldn't have even cleared 10.

Watching her fling the hummingbird straight along a linear path like a sparrow had made my fingers itch to coach her.

Then again, people learn the most by getting thrown into real combat again and again.

"……"

Unfortunately, it seemed Seo Ye-in had no cards left to play.

Properly rocked by the Hummingbird, her mobility had dropped to nearly zero.

So for her final act, whether it worked or not, she tried to dump out every last ounce of firepower she had.

The rifle disassembled in an instant and reassembled into the two pistols.

— Tatatatat!

But attacks that hadn't worked at the start weren't about to work now — the barrage was effortlessly swallowed by the barrier, as expected.

Each time Song Cheon-hye held her solid defense and fired back a counter, Seo Ye-in's health kept chipping away.

"It's over."

"Ah."

The moment the five-minute time limit ran out, Song Cheon-hye drew in all of her mana in the blink of an eye, as if she'd never been fighting at all.

Watching her handle mana as naturally as her own limbs, I was certain of one thing.

'Among the first-years, there's hardly anyone who can match her.'

She'd simply drawn an unfortunate matchup — Seo Ye-in's skills were considerable in her own right.

Holding out unsuppressed until the very end of the match against the Topaz Magic Tower alone earned her plenty of credit.

Still, evaluation was evaluation, and the bet was the bet.

I held out my hand toward Shin Byung-cheol.

"5 silver."

"Nooo~ I actually lost~ Ahh~"

Wearing an expression of pure disbelief, he pulled out the 5 silver and dropped it into my palm.

He'd said 5 silver was just enough to sting, but now that he'd actually lost it, it clearly hurt a great deal.

"Hey, hey, one more bet. Just one more."

"Why do you keep wanting to bet? Being a sore loser isn't a good look, you know."

"Aw, quit it and just listen. The placement exam is a joint first-year event, so everything's out in the open — but PvP matches are usually closed to spectators. When else are you going to get a chance to trade bets while munching popcorn like this?"

That much, of course, I already knew.

Unless a tournament opened up in the fall, opportunities to watch students duel each other were few and far between.

So I pretended to be reluctant and agreed.

"Fine. One more, and that's it."

"Excellent decision! So this time……"

Shin Byung-cheol's eyes began roaming from one arena to the next, hunting for betting targets.

Han So-mi, who cornered her opponents with a ferocious sword aura before finally subduing them.

Hong Yeon-hwa, who had turned an entire arena into a sea of fire.

Both were more than worthy of a wager — but unfortunately, the third ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠placement match was already winding down.

"Oh!"

Then Shin Byung-cheol spotted someone and his eyes lit up.

"How about Go Hyeon-woo?"