Chapter 18
Karnarov let out a loud sigh and said.
“For starters, well done.”
“…?”
“Did you think I'd just let the praise for a job well done slide without saying anything?”
“Honestly, I thought you would.”
“Then you'd be mistaken. Remember that.”
He seemed kind of petty, so I figured he would.
That didn't mean I expected him to actually pay attention in class, though.
“By the way, you seem to lack experience with basic attack magic.”
“Mm…”
“When lowering stability, you must always consider the backlash. Stability is not something to tamper with carelessly.”
“Understood.”
It was sound advice.
“As a side note, when you mess with stability, it's best to prepare a means of defense. For example, if you have something like a shield or Protection, that should at least block the physical damage.”
He had even pointed out something I'd been thinking about on the spot.
I had definitely gotten a little too carried away just because my mana had increased.
It was a mistake I didn't need to make.
Karnarov was pointing that out.
“If it hadn't been for the Script family's unique magic, that scar would have been severe.”
“Huh?”
“Aris Script. A user of innate magic who inherited a strong bloodline, with the power to heal and cleanse status ailments.”
Aris's innate magic?
I'd never heard of that.
“Is it okay to just tell me something like that?”
“You'll find out eventually, so it's fine.”
Hmm.
He was blatantly acting like he couldn't be bothered to explain the details.
“And one more thing.”
“What now?”
“There will be professors and students set in their ways who look at you unfavorably.”
...Aren't you the one giving me an unfriendly look?
I swallowed the words at the back of my throat.
“I'm telling you to be careful. People like that can have brains so rigid they end up jealous over things they needn't be jealous of.”
“Well, I know that much.”
There were guys who'd been jealous of me even at the training camp.
Some of the instructors had even gotten jealous of my traits and tried to sabotage me.
Of course, those people somehow all stopped bothering me after unfortunate accidents.
A real shame.
“Good, then. As for the assignment I gave you, I'd like you to solve it within a week from now.”
Ah.
The assignment.
A mountain of magic-circle studies problems.
I was also 100 shots behind on basic attack magic practice.
“I'll separate the students who can properly cast basic attack magic into another class and teach them the next stage. If you don't know magic-circle studies, you'll be in for hell.”
Hold on.
Then that assignment too...
“You didn't give me homework just to bully me, did you?”
“Punishment is punishment. But it should still be in a direction that helps the student.”
“I thought you were just making me write lines.”
He ignored my comment, gathered his things, and turned his back.
“Then that's enough advice. That should do for the reward.”
...That advice was the reward?
It did help.
Still, that's a pretty stingy reward.
I thought that as I watched Karnarov walk away with his back turned.
***
“So, they said you're okay?”
Aris said with a worried expression.
“They said there aren't any injuries besides some light bruising? Apparently the body just stiffened from the sudden healing.”
“Thank goodness...”
Aris let out a sigh as if she were collapsing.
She's got too much to worry about.
“So what kind of magic did you use on me that I don't have a single wound?”
“Well... my family told me to keep it hidden if possible, but... it would be rude for me alone to keep mine all hidden when Yumia has shown her innate magic.”
“That's not innate magic, though.”
But thinking about it, there's no other way to explain it except as magic.
She took out her wand.
A white wand was held in Aris's white hand.
“In Code, Cleanse.”
White beams of light shot out from her wand.
And as those streams were sucked into my body in an instant,
...the fatigue vanished completely.
I swung my arms around.
All the stiffness was gone.
“Amazing!?”
“Hehe. Actually, it's not really the kind of spell you'd use in a situation like this. Back then, I used it to keep Yumia from getting burned.”
An innate magic, huh.
Its performance was absurdly overpowered.
“Still, my training isn't enough, so the output's low. I'm practicing, but...”
“Still, this is great.”
Healers are nobility.
That saying held true even in modern times.
People with healing abilities are prioritized for recruitment by guilds.
And healing potions are so expensive they're practically priced however the seller wants.
“And it can even remove status ailments.”
“Then would you be my practice partner? At home, the servants would practice with me, but I haven't been able to since I came here.”
“Of course.”
Who wouldn't turn that down?
I accepted right away.
Aris glanced at me and gave a wry smile.
“Well... it looks like I'll have plenty of opportunities to use it.... I should practice from now on.”
“What do you mean by that??”
But I had nothing to say to that.
Tch.
***
First, we ate and went into the dorm.
Then, a status check on the current situation.
As expected, status checks should be done with the status window open.
“Status window.”
I sat on the corner of the bed and opened the status window for the first time in ages.
Name: Yumia
Ability: [Initial Magic], [Basic Attack Magic(?)]
Traits:
[Conversion(?)]
[A Great Mage's Talent(?)]
[Affinity with Nature(?)]
[Black Mage's Talent(?)]
[Mathematician of Magic Circles(?)]
[Blessing of Language(?)]
[Dragon Eyes(SR+)]
[Inventory(SSR)]
[One Feared by Spirits(?)]
There was a small change in the status window.
'What is this? I didn't have this before.'
Magic had been added to the ability slot.
That was a change that had already happened before.
But now every one of my traits had a rank.
'...So they didn't lack ranks; I just didn't know them?'
That was a possibility.
Then as for why they were only being shown now...
'There's only one reason.'
It seemed like a change that happened after I entered the Tower.
And the cause was...
No clue!
In the first place, it's only been a few decades since gates started appearing here and there, abysses opened on the seabed, and towers sprang up in the air.
There'd have been no way to know in that time.
But one thing was certain: I had become incomparably stronger than before.
I looked at the blue magnetic mana coiling around my hand.
Something I couldn't even have imagined just a month ago.
But I don't think this is the end.
“I can still grow stronger.”
Just thinking about that possibility made the corners of my mouth rise uncontrollably.
I can get stronger.
“It's about time.”
The second floor. Or perhaps even higher.
It was time to clear the Tower.
To do that, I needed to prepare.
I leapt into bed.
“Uwaaaah!!”
For now, the first thing was to get some proper rest!
Sleep is important.
Mm-hmm.
As expected, the dorm bed really was comfortable!
Reinhardt's other stuff might be crap, but this one beat anything from modern times!
I fell asleep, feeling the soft blanket wrap around me.
***
My resolve wasn't a joke.
The operation was set for next week's Empire Patriot Day. Seven days left.
I only recently learned that there are no roll calls on imperial national holidays.
That meant nobody would complain if I came back late, and if I ran off, it'd be fine as long as Aris kept her mouth shut.
If that was the case, then if I wanted to leave then...
I had to get all the backed-up assignments done to avoid any trouble later.
“You're going to the library early in the morning, of all times!?”
[Basic Magic Circle Studies]
If I didn't finish Chapter 1 before going, I felt like Karnarov would keep harassing me even over there.
I took a seat with Aris in a corner of the library and started studying.
[Magic Circle Mathematician] is activated at maximum output!
For the first time in a while, my trait flashed its message and spun around.
The notes written throughout the books also helped me understand things.
Even with it running at full power, there was so much material that it still took hours....
But the efficiency was definitely there.
Aris exclaimed.
“Wow... Yumia, how do you understand it that fast? Every problem you solved was correct!!”
“...Kill me...”
Being smarter didn't make the stress of studying disappear.
Of course, solving problems myself was fun, but...
Do you know the pain of sitting at a desk for hours and finding that what you still have left is more than five times what you've already done?
“You've done sixteen problems now, so there are eighty-five left!”
“Gyaaaah!!”
That left 85 problems.
The Magic Circle Mathematician and my own brain were both spinning at full throttle after a long time.
***
“Casting, Bullet.”
“Casting... Bullet!”
“Casting, Bullet, Bullet!”
I didn't forget the basic attack magic assignment either.
'You've already mastered the basics of basic attack magic, so try changing every variable that can be changed. It will definitely help you.'
'...That's a pain.'
'Student Yumia seems to dislike grades. No choice then. You'll have to take the class again next semester...'
'Ah, I'll do it already!'
Karnarov, that petty bastard...!
But if I wanted to move on to the next stage, there was no helping it.
Still, it felt worthwhile.
The spell, the mana pattern I fed into it, the shape and numbers of the magic circles built into it.
Every time I changed those, it came out differently.
Sometimes nothing came out of the wand, sometimes it shot out quickly, and sometimes it fired twice.
...This is kind of fun.
Even after I had filled the required amount for the assignment, I kept trying attack magic.
My mana was more than enough.
The mental fatigue that piled up was healed by Aris's innate magic.
After about five days of diligently running experiments for a few hours each day,
[[Basic Attack Magic] proficiency has increased!]
...So there was a system like that too?
As expected, the status window was a mystery in and of itself.
***
“So, you want more shields?”
“Yep.”
I was at the School Market.
More precisely, I had come to buy the clearance shields being sold at Swordmilia.
Shields were necessary.
To use my defensive magic (not), I absolutely needed a shield.
The more spares I had, the better the quality, the better off I'd be.
So I decided to start by looking around Swordmilia.
I ran into that old man again.
Brian laughed heartily.
“By the way, I heard the news! You said you took down a werewolf, right?”
“It got around that far?”
Gossip sure spreads fast.
“Of course! The mysterious student who wielded Swordmilia's sword and, together with a second-year from Lunaris, took down a werewolf!”
“Ooh?”
“And this is information I heard myself...!”
“Y-yes?”
As he started to whisper, I leaned in to listen.
“I hear that the werewolf's rampage, and the fact that the communications line was cut so no other knights or mages came, were all the work of those evil demon worshippers!”
“W-what!?”
I made an exaggerated show of surprise.
Of course, I had no idea just how evil demon worshippers were.
He rode the momentum and showered me with praise.
“That means you lot took down a beast like that.”
“Woohoo! Then that should get some publicity!”
“Then then. Selling you that sword was a stroke of genius. Even the Empire's biggest newspaper came to interview us.”
“Really? What did they say?”
“They asked about the mysterious swordsman and the quality of our sword. I wish you'd been there.”
“Then you can give me a shield for cheap too, right?”
“Mm-hmm. That's right.”
“Then sell me five shields for 5 silver.”
A silence fell instantly.
“...Ugh. Five shields for 5 silver is a little hard on the conscience...”
“Huh? But you sold them to me that way before.”
“No, that was a special...”
“You said you'd sell it cheap! You're a total liar.”
Brian gave a helpless gesture.
“...Fine. You punk. You're the first person I've seen cause a scene in Swordmilia. Since I'm already selling prototype goods at clearance, I guess I can let them go even cheaper.”
“Huh, really?”
I'd even been ready to throw myself down and demand he give back part of the profit if he made money off me.
He was caving that easily?
“It's that much of an achievement that you took down a werewolf. Even if they're prototypes, we made them with our best effort. Use them carefully.”
He handed me the shields with that warning.
And just like that, I returned to Reinhardt with my inventory stuffed to the brim.
I had also made steady progress on the assignments for other subjects like herbology and Imperial history.
So by the date I was supposed to leave, most of the assignments were already done.
Of course, I'd also run out of money entirely.
Now it was time for the final touch.
Making the shopping list.
I had learned an important fact: people can't live on canned food alone.
Humans, surprisingly, were a higher form of life than mere cat-can openers.
Last time, I hadn't written down the things I needed, so I had just stuffed random things into my cart at the supermarket.
That kind of reckless behavior ends now!
The invincible list, complete!
Done!
***
“So that's why you came.”
“Yep.”
Woo Soohyun, who'd been dragged here from the Association, gave me a weary look.
We were currently right in front of the Tower entrance.
Since I didn't know the way to the Tower,
I brought Woo Soohyun along as both a guide and to kill time.
And if any good abilities or traits came up, I could flex a little in front of Woo Soohyun too.
[Would you like to enter the Tower?]
[Y/N]
I pressed Y right away.
Second Floor Conquest.
Commence.