Chapter 26
Hmm.
At this rate, Aris is going to give me an earful.
Let's deny everything for now!
“I didn't go there!!”
At that, Karnarov smiled darkly.
“Yumia, the data from the West Forest was truly impressive. I have no idea how you got in there, though.”
Aris's gaze grew even more murderous.
At this rate, a lecture is guaranteed!!
“I-I copied it!”
“Hahaha, if I remember correctly, this assignment was given exactly once twenty years ago, and only to the top student as a special assignment.”
“…What.
“How could you have copied something that exists only in Karnarov's treasury, a subspace within a subspace?”
No.
This isn't right!
There's no way out at all!
I decided to stake everything on one last hope.
“D-data manipulation…”
“Do you really think it would be possible to manipulate data so precisely?”
Damn my past self.
I worked so hard for no good reason!
“No, but how did you know about that?”
“The high mana density and the unusual natural mana. There was no way I wouldn't know.”
Oh no…
“…Amazing. I never even thought of going in there.”
Linia said, looking at me.
“You went into the West Forest too, Yumia! As expected, you always surpass my imagination!”
“Robert, don't even think about going in there.”
“Pardon? But isn't that place used for practical training?”
“That is true, but they only follow designated routes, and someone of professor rank accompanies them. That's because they have to deal with any problems that arise.”
“What kind of problems are we talking about…?”
Linia asked.
Linia seemed interested in the West Forest too.
The moment the question was asked, Karnarov's expression changed drastically for the worse.
As if even thinking about it was exhausting.
“That is the domain of the King of Wings.”
“…The King of Wings… You mean the one from the rumors?”
“Professor Shila said the same thing.”
Robert was shocked, while Aris looked as though she remembered.
Ah.
If what they meant was similar to what I was thinking, there shouldn't be a problem.
I thought it was because of magical beasts.
But Adrian had taken care of that problem too.
Thanks to my Nature Affinity trait, I could at least escape even if I encountered a C-rank or higher magical beast.
“If that's all it is, then there shouldn't be a prob—”
Karnarov cut me off.
“She is dangerous. Extremely powerful, hostile to humans, and always takes something away from them.”
Huh?
‘Hehe. Big sis, welcome!’
I thought of Adrian, who always greeted me wearing an old-fashioned dress.
“Why do you think that? She could be kind.”
At that, Karnarov spoke as if trying to shatter my romanticized image of the dragon.
“Hahaha… I have never once seen that dragon bastard treat humans peacefully or favorably.”
“Pardon?”
“That foul personality is a work of art.”
Hmm.
I recalled our conversation when I went into the forest for my assignment.
‘Big sis, I went to the Eternal Snow Mountain and dug up an elixir. Want some?’
‘I got some good liquor this time, but…’
“She always forces me into trades, takes unfair advantage, and leaves… Damn it. This time too…”
Karnarov clenched his fist, anger showing on his face.
“Is that all? She is always arrogant and fiercely proud. Humans aren't even allowed to come near her, let alone touch her.”
A scene came to mind.
‘A lap pillow? Of course. You're always welcome, big sis.’
For the record, her lap was cool and comfortable.
She was actually the one who initiated physical contact much more often.
“Of course, if you pass her trials, you can at least receive a little mana. That much is a rule established by the Covenant. But even the chance to undergo the trial isn't granted easily…”
‘Want to replenish your natural mana? Just use mine! I'll give you some mana! How much do you need?’
‘I have plenty of things that work better than that magic circle! With talent like yours, big sis… This should do!’
‘Mana? It's overflowing like garbage anyway, so I might as well give you some.’
She's talking about people like us, right?
Doesn't seem like it.
Could there actually be another being called the King of Wings living in the West Forest?
Robert trembled.
“I never imagined a dragon could be this close. In that case, approaching her really would be impossible…”
“Because of the Covenant, the first time she would only drive you away, but there wouldn't be a second time.”
“…I suppose I should go after building up sufficient skill.”
Robert bit down on his lip.
He looked like he hadn't realized it would be this dangerous.
I stuck my tongue out from a carefully chosen angle Karnarov couldn't see.
Bleh.
I could just go there anyway.
“That is sound advice. If you need a place with particularly high mana density, I recommend the Central Library.”
I opened my mouth.
Still, I should at least pretend to listen.
“Wow, r.e.a.l.l.y.d.a.n.g.e.r.o.u.s.”
“For once, you are listening right away.”
Karnarov nodded.
“I.a.b.s.o.l.u.t.e.l.y.m.u.s.t.n.o.t.g.o.t.h.e.r.e.”
Aris didn't lecture me either, perhaps thinking I had learned my lesson.
Okay.
Guess I can go anyway.
***
Anyway, once I had submitted my assignment, I had considerably less to do.
As for magic practice, nothing much had changed.
Aris and I came to a practice room in the Central Auditorium building.
“It's been a while since I've been here.”
Each student was assigned an individual practice room in the auditorium building.
Using attack magic or elemental magic on school grounds was insane.
So ordinary students made frequent use of these practice rooms.
‘Well, it doesn't really matter to me… since I have the West Forest.’
There were no students at all, and there was open space with magical beasts suitable as targets scattered all over.
‘It was the perfect environment for practice.’
Whenever I got bored, I hunted magical beasts that looked easy.
Then I took their mana stones to the school market and sold them.
That was enough for me to barely earn the cost of one meal a day.
‘But I can't go in during the day.’
That was the biggest drawback.
It didn't seem like anyone would believe my relationship with Adrian, either.
Even I wouldn't believe someone who said they were friends with an S-rank hunter.
Adrian seemed even stronger than that.
It was equally impossible to imagine beating either of them, but Adrian was on an entirely different level.
“Let's finish quickly and go get something to eat.”
We had come to a two-person practice room that we had reserved.
Even the one-person rooms were fairly spacious.
The two-person rooms were only slightly larger than two one-person rooms put together.
They were large enough for simple sparring too.
I fired magic at a target fixed to the wall.
“Casting, Bullet, Triple.”
I added one more phrase and another small magic circle to the casting sequence.
That allowed me to fire three shots at once.
All three white-glowing magic bullets struck the center of the target.
Aris picked up her staff too.
“Casting, Bullet, Double.”
One shot hit dead center, but the other veered slightly off.
“Oops…”
“Casting, Bullet, Triple.”
I fired mana bullets at three separately moving targets.
—Crack, crack… snap.
“Ah, one of them veered off a little.”
I sighed after turning off the practice artifact that moved the targets.
If I couldn't hit these, I'd have more to write in the report.
Karnarov assigned it, so I couldn't skip it either.
Still, it was a relief that I hit them.
“Wow! That's amazing! How do you even hit moving targets!?”
Aris exclaimed in admiration.
As expected, her reactions were great.
“Just use Dragon Eyes.”
I switched on Dragon Eyes.
“…What?”
“Oh, did I never show you? My eyes are like this.”
“What fascinating eyes. Are they Mystic Eyes?”
“Mystic Eyes?”
“Eyes with special abilities. I've heard people use them to cast magic and things like that.”
All I had was something like a telescope and enhanced dynamic vision.
Ah.
I had night vision too.
They had more abilities than I'd realized.
“These aren't Mystic Eyes, they're Dragon Eyes.”
“Dragon Eyes? Hehe, what a joke. You're human, aren't you, Yumia?”
“I'm serious… Anyway, they improve my dynamic vision, so hitting things is easy. I have a feel for it too.”
After fighting so much, I'd developed a rough sense of when and where to shoot to hit.
I continued working on the assignment.
Pew-pew lights shot out of my staff.
I kept the power as low as possible and increased the stability.
Thanks to that, by about the tenth attempt I could fire four shots in succession and pierce all four targets.
I checked the amount of mana I'd used, the practice area's mana density, and the targets' condition, then slumped down onto the floor.
“It's scary how this is starting to feel manageable too…”
“Your skills have improved a lot too.”
Sure enough, Aris was now firing mana bullets at a pace that meant she was ready to be sent into actual combat.
Aris had more mana than I did.
With a little real combat experience, I thought she could beat a D-rank hunter or so.
If she became a healer, she'd probably be very good with only a little training.
Of course, there was one obstacle.
‘Healers need a fair amount of knowledge.’
Knowing anatomy or not made a clear difference in mana efficiency and treatment speed.
Hmm.
Should I kidnap a healer and train them?
If I kidnapped one and took them to another world, there wouldn't even be any evidence left.
Thinking that, I chanted a spell.
“Casting, Shield.”
A transparent membrane formed around me.
I tried using magic in that state.
My attacks passed through it, while it blocked my opponent's attacks.
It was truly fascinating.
“You already learned that!?”
“It's similar to attack magic.”
“Which part?”
“The mana infusion pattern.”
“Everything except that is different… Yumia, you learn incredibly quickly. I don't know how I'm supposed to catch up later.”
“You don't really need to catch up, do you? Let's each go at our own pace.”
“That's true. Now, it's time. Let's head down to the main auditorium.”
Aris picked up the backpack she'd brought.
We went down the stairs.
I watched Aris quietly as she carried that huge backpack on her small frame.
“Are you bringing something that big?”
Today, before the afternoon Magical Biology class, we had to pick up the ingredients and equipment for tomorrow's Potionology class.
I hadn't checked the volume, but it looked like quite a lot at a glance.
Of course, it didn't matter to me.
I had emptied my inventory before coming.
Students were bustling around inside the main auditorium.
Ingredients and equipment were piled up like mountains.
We had to take all of this?
“All right! Go over there, line up, and take them one at a time! Be careful with the ingredients!”
The faculty members were shouting.
They were probably staff members who usually stood guard.
I picked up the pot first.
“Whoa!”
It was incredibly heavy.
Should I raise my Strength stat a bit?
Seeing me startled by the cast-iron pot, which was larger and heavier than expected, one of the guards said,
“Why don't you have a bag, student? I'm sure there was an announcement telling you to bring one…”
“I didn't bring one, though.”
“Tsk, can't be helped. There's an old bag over there, at least…”
“No, I don't need one.”
The cast-iron pot vanished from my hand without a trace.