Chapter 41
Duke Script quietly stared at me and the remains of the wooden wand.
“Was that your favorite wand?”
“Not really.”
I had gotten attached to it, sure, but in a world where usable wands were lying around everywhere, why bother?
“Do you know the brand? Something like the workshop it was made in, or the name of the magic tower?”
“I don’t know.”
“As I thought. It’s embarrassing to even call this a wand.”
“…Huh?”
If this was too embarrassing to even call a wand, then what on earth were the things I saw at the artifact shop the other day?
Firewood?
“More precisely, it’s the kind of thing used by adventurers out on the streets who’ve learned simple spells.”
“Then it can still cast magic, right?”
“It can, yes, but it is absolutely not a proper mage’s wand. To think you used magic with this... just what are you...?”
I guess I am pretty amazing, after all.
Heh.
I could feel my self-esteem rising.
“Then what am I supposed to use?”
“Normally, the greater your talent and mana reserves, the better a wand you use to withstand that output.”
Huh?
I sensed something was off.
“Then what happens if you don’t use a good wand?”
“The wand gives out like this.”
So even using Basic Attack Magic had been straining the wand all along?
“Judging by your mana reserves, it seems you’ve been using it while deliberately keeping the strain to a minimum.”
I never did that, though?
“Or else your mastery of magic is so exceptional that you mastered the spell before it could place any strain on the wand.”
True, I had only used Basic Attack Magic and nothing else.
“Are cases like that rare?”
“Haha, cases like that are almost nonexistent. At the very least, it means you have Rank 4 or higher mana control, and I have never seen a student with control like that.”
“I see.”
Was I imagining it?
“And above all, once you move beyond beginner spells, the burden on the wand increases far more. If it were this wand, it wouldn’t have withstood beginner magic and would have snapped.”
Hmm.
So the wand’s death was a foregone conclusion, huh.
Even among rare-grade ones, it was a pretty good one, but it didn’t seem to impress Duke Script at all.
Come to think of it, even the school wand was SR or higher.
And instead of getting praised, it was being called a basic model.
I had vaguely realized it already, but the magical civilization here seemed vastly superior to modern Earth.
It was almost as if modern science were far more advanced than this world.
After all, even the commonplace Basic Attack Magic was something nobody used in modern times.
“Then what am I supposed to use?”
“Naturally, I’d like to say the top-of-the-line models... but unless we fully sponsor you, that would be difficult.”
“What if you sponsor me?”
“Not during the semester. Imperial law forbids it, so don’t blame me.”
He adjusted his mustache.
“Use the Reinhart School rental wand for now. You’ll have to be careful with it too, but if you use the best one, you’ll manage somehow.”
“Can’t I buy one here?”
“I wouldn’t recommend it.”
Duke Script said flatly.
“Normally, a wand is something you slowly compare and choose by finding the brand that fits the user’s hand. Buy one rashly, and you’ll only end up wasting money.”
“Eh?”
I had just picked up whatever was lying around and used it!
“At least it’s fortunate that this one matches your mana wavelength well.”
He handed me the remains of the wooden wand.
“Otherwise, serious strain would have been transferred to the wand, and it would have snapped before long.”
Come to think of it, maybe the fire wand just didn’t suit me.
“There are too few brands here to browse carefully. In the first place, it would be impossible for all those wand shops to set up shop here.”
That cleared up some of my questions about why there were so few wand shops.
And why wands were so expensive compared to swords.
Basically, it was the kind of item that only the people who bought it kept using.
“I’ll write you an introduction letter here, so come visit during the break.”
Duke Script pressed his wand to a sheet of stationery.
Then, with a soft swish, elegant letters were inscribed.
Once it was all written out, the Script House seal appeared with a flare.
…That was pretty cool.
‘Can’t I learn something like that too?’
It was fairly inefficient compared to machines, but the fact that one wand could solve everything was appealing.
Magic really is great after all.
“And by the end of the semester, there will likely be many people wanting to sponsor you. Choose carefully among them.”
“What about you, sir?”
“We’d be pleased if you chose us, but there are a few mage families who can rival us or even edge us out slightly.”
Duke Script smiled at me.
He gave off the vibe of a doting father.
* * *
“In the end, I’m back to relying on a rental wand.”
Of course, the rental fee had jumped from 3 silver a week to 50 silver.
But in return, I got to use a far better wand.
It was something used when the wands of noble children broke.
It was a fairly luxurious item used temporarily while a wand was being repaired or before buying a new one.
[Reinhart’s Wand (SSR)]
An upgraded version of the wand that Reinhart School lends out by default.
Since it’s a mass-produced model, its circuits are neatly laid out, and it can withstand dragon mana three times at most.
It is sufficient for those with middling talent, but not suited to those with natural talent.
…Oh?
The Observation Eye had finally provided useful information after a long time.
It can withstand only three strikes of dragon mana.
“It does feel a bit underwhelming for SSR, though...”
But if you think about the attack power of dragon mana, it makes sense.
Dragon mana was now my only true high-powered attack.
I realized that during my duel with Leokan.
‘I absolutely have to use dragon mana.’
Because I had no idea what kind of absurd nonsense or unfair bad luck might be waiting.
Seen that way, the fact that I could use it up to four times if I was willing to break the wand was a huge advantage.
And so, after two weeks passed, what was I doing...?
.
.
.
.
“Ugh... I’m bored...”
I was, astonishingly, doing absolutely nothing.
That said, I wasn’t slacking off.
I simply had nothing to do.
‘I’ve finished all my assignments... mastered Basic Attack Magic... and Basic Defense too.’
The wand’s performance was way better than I expected.
Thanks to that, the data spikes were reduced, and I finished my assignments quickly too.
I’d also used up all the materials for making potions.
I had potions overflowing, but selling them was a hassle.
They were potions I could safely drink myself, so there wasn’t much reason to sell them anyway.
“I’m already swimming in money, so is there even a reason to bother...?”
Of course, there is that crazy wand that eats 0.5 gold a week.
But even taking that into account, the pile of gold and silver coins meant I was living a surprisingly comfortable life.
I was at the point where I had nothing to do, so I was leafing through a herbology book and memorizing the reaction chart.
Imperial History... I probably don’t need to study it if I’m never going to become an Imperial mage, right?
It just didn’t interest me at all.
Take that away, and I really had nothing else to do.
“By the way, it’s starting to get pretty hot.”
Even considering it was spring, it was hot.
‘Everything else is different, so why is this one so similar to Korea?’
That doesn’t make sense.
“Yeah, it is a bit hot.”
Aris also fanned herself.
Do they not have air conditioning or anything here?
I might need to prepare for summer.
Now that finals and all that were coming up, I’d probably get busy, so if I wanted to study comfortably, I’d better make a quick trip to Earth.
* * *
Sudden Gate.
The most vicious kind of gate, it can cause casualties ranging from a few people to, in severe cases, several thousand.
When it forms, it sucks in everything nearby.
And if you fail to clear it in time, it unleashes horrific things in the middle of the city.
When humanity first encountered gates in the past, there was no greater disaster than this.
And yet, the rewards for successfully clearing one—artifacts or monster materials—were more than enough.
It was truly humanity’s front line.
B-rank hunter Lee Hyunho of the White Tiger Guild hurried to the scene after hearing that a gate had appeared.
[It appears an unnatural crack has formed beneath the bridge! Quickly enter the gate and destroy the core!]
Lee Hyunho ran toward the gate in the distance while listening to the briefing.
[The gate theme is ‘Arachne’! A large number of spider-type monsters seem to have spawned!!]
“Damn. What a pain.”
Spider-types spin webs and make full use of the terrain.
For a melee-type hunter like him, that could be a tough opponent.
But it was fine.
The gate’s estimated rank was C++.
At B-rank, he should be able to handle any variables that came up.
‘Huh?’
Then Lee Hyunho spotted someone with long white hair standing in front of the sudden gate.
‘What? A hunter?’
In a sudden gate, the side that finds it first and clears it first gets priority.
But that frail figure looked less like a rival and more like...
someone he needed to protect.
A cute appearance that stirred his protective instincts, a figure sculpted as if by the gods.
No matter how he looked at it, it didn’t seem like a hunter.
He shouted from far away.
“Student!! Run away!!! If you get sucked in, you won’t be able to get out!”
“What is he saying?”
Yumia muttered.
“I should just clear it quickly, grab the loot, and get out.”
“Damn, is the interference too strong for my voice to get through...!”
Lee Hyunho thought his voice wasn’t reaching her.
In the meantime, she was sucked into the gate.
“N-no...! Stuuuuudent!!!”
He screamed.
Ordinary people can’t properly sense mana.
She must have been swallowed up without even properly noticing where the gate was!
“Tch.”
He let out a groan.
He had a younger sister.
After being swallowed by a gate himself, he had miraculously awakened his powers and barely come back alive.
After that, he climbed the tower on hard mode and became a proper hunter.
Whenever he was about to lose sight of his original resolve, he recalled the sight of himself trying to protect his younger sister.
“I’ll definitely save you!!”
And so, he threw himself into the gate.
“Casting, Bullet, Octa, Explode.”
—KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA!!!
He watched every spider at the gate’s entrance turn to white ash.