Chapter 5
“...That... was basic attack magic?”
“Even the beginner magic my older brother used wasn’t that strong...?”
Karanov said, as if dismissing the students’ reactions.
“It’s a properly cast rank-1 basic attack magic.”
...I was speechless.
I thought of the hunter from the training camp.
A C-rank hunter, whose ability was Fireball.
I learned how to handle mana from him.
I also roughly knew his maximum output.
He could probably burn down that pile too.
But could he do it at that distance, that speed, and that level of accuracy?
That was impossible.
And Karanov had called that “basic” attack magic.
...Then what else was there?
“H-haa.”
Without realizing it, saliva dripped from my mouth.
I hurriedly tried to wipe it with my sleeve, but Aris handed me a handkerchief.
I realized it. Properly learned magic is absurdly broken.
“Enough talk. I’ll show you how to use it right away. Now.”
He drew a magic circle on the blackboard.
It was fairly complex, yet he drew it without hesitation, filling in even the runes along the edges without missing a single one.
“Memorize this magic circle and use it by reciting the spell. If you can activate it, you may leave this classroom.”
Then he sat down on the chair beneath the blackboard and crossed his legs.
“...What?”
“How are we supposed to do that with no explanation?”
The students’ murmuring did not die down.
“Looks like you have a complaint.”
One student protested.
“Your explanation is far too unfriendly.”
“There are things you can only gain if you realize them yourself... tsk. Fine. I’ll give you a hint.”
He wrote one more thing on the blackboard.
[Magic circles are sentences, sentences are magic circles]
Suddenly, a student stepped forward.
“Robert?”
“What’s so hard about this?”
“Casting, Bullet!”
Then a faint flash of light came out of his wand with a piiing.
The light dribbled downward like a thin stream of piss before vanishing.
“Not bad. You pass. You may leave. However, it seems the power needs to be strengthened.”
Karanov’s reaction wasn’t bad.
“Ah, I’ll do it again, again!”
“I said leave.”
Robert seemed unsatisfied, but Karanov was merciless.
“He did that in one shot...!”
“As expected of the Carter family...!”
But Aris and the surrounding students looked shocked.
There were students beside me who were fervently reciting the spell too.
“Casting... Bullet!”
“Casting Bullet!”
But less than half of them succeeded.
“Casting Bullet.”
I tried reciting the spell too.
I just recited it without thinking, but a faint light gathered at the tip of my wand.
Aris exclaimed in amazement when she saw it.
“H-how did you do that!?”
“I don’t know either.”
Maybe the secret was in that magic circle?
But sunlight was reflecting off the blackboard, so it was hard to see.
Karanov’s ridiculously tall height didn’t help either.
I moved closer to the magic circle where the kids were clustered.
But there was a small problem.
“Professor.”
“What is it? Student Yumia. Don’t tell me there’s something you don’t understand?”
Not that.
“No. Would you mind giving me that spot?”
“...Huh?”
“You already know everything, Professor. Please let me have it; my legs hurt.”
The atmosphere froze instantly.
But Karanov stepped aside obediently.
What, he actually listens?
That comfortable-looking chair had been tempting me from the start.
The kids didn’t even dare approach because Karanov was standing nearby.
As expected, the brave seize the chair.
“I-is that person insane?”
“Does she not know fear?”
They were muttering something, but I ignored it.
Likewise, a vein bulged on Karanov’s face, but I ignored that too.
What’s his problem? Did he not sleep well?
‘By the way, how exactly am I supposed to do this...’
I snatched the chair, settled in, and began studying the magic circle from my first-class seat.
[[The Mathematician of the Magic Square] activates.]
Then a message rang in my head.
‘What is this?’
At that moment, I could understand the entire structure of the magic circle drawn on the blackboard.
Come to think of it, I remembered similar messages appearing when the effects of [Dragon’s Eye] and [Nature Affinity] first manifested.
Of course, after that they just manifested automatically.
I understood.
From why you had to memorize the magic circle in your head to why math showed up on the exam.
I took a piece of chalk and started writing on the practice sheet.
“What is she doing?”
“No idea. She’ll clean it up herself, I guess.”
But I paid it no mind.
Magic circles are sentences.
Sentences are magic circles.
The meaning of a magic circle was to turn a sentence-like formula into a pattern.
Then!
I raised my wand.
Memorizing the formula was the same as memorizing the magic circle in my head.
Thanks to [Blessing of Language], I could understand the meaning of the characters.
Gather mana, and launch it forward.
It was an extremely basic spell.
I knew it instinctively.
Even if you don’t understand it, the magic will activate as long as you trigger it according to the magic circle.
But a lot would change depending on whether you understood it or not.
By adjusting the numbers, you could change power, mana consumption, stability, and more!
“I think I get it.”
“...Huh?”
I took a deep breath.
I pointed my wand at one of the standing targets, drew up my mana, and recited the spell.
“Casting Bullet!”
But something was a little strange.
My mana got sucked into the wand.
A little too much, to a dangerous degree.
“Ah. Wait a second.”
“...Huh?”
“I messed up the calculation.”
So this was the mana value?
I’d swapped it with stability.
The stability value originally in the magic circle was 90.
And the power value originally in the magic circle was 15.
But I switched those two around.
Stability tanked. Power skyrocketed.
“Uh. Wha—?”
“Wait, look at her!”
“Why is her body glowing!?”
“R-run!!!”
And then, a beam of light shot toward the wall.
Right before that, I saw Karanov reciting a spell with a frantic expression.
—KWAANG!!!
A small crater formed on the floor.
My vision blurred.
“Still... it activated...”
I collapsed, smiling.
***
When I opened my eyes, I was somewhere with a white ceiling and the smell of medicine.
“Are you awake?”
Someone with bright light-green hair and a white lab coat spoke to me.
“...Who are you?”
“I’m Celine. I’m the medical professor. You’re fine. It’s just basic mana exhaustion.”
As she said that, Celine removed the wet towel from my forehead.
“You have far too little mana.”
“Is my mana really that low?”
“You’d barely have enough for five properly cast basic attack spells, with a tiny bit left over. If you pushed your maximum output like that, even once would be dangerous. Yeah.”
“Can’t I increase my mana?”
“There are two ways to increase it: elixirs and training. Elixirs are expensive, so training is the realistic option.”
“How long would it take?”
“With a basic mana training method, maybe about three years? You’d probably be able to get about five times as much.”
...Slow.
“You’ve got talent too, so it probably wouldn’t take that long... but that’s just how mana is.”
“What about elixirs?”
“Let’s see... the cheapest dryad essence goes for... about 5 gold, I think.”
“G-heek...”
It felt like I’d been hit in the head.
5 gold.
500 silver.
Converted, that’s 166.66666 meals...
“Of course, if you become a promising talent, it won’t be hard to get one? If you drank that, let’s see... you’d probably be able to use basic attack magic about fifteen times?”
Even the efficiency is trash...
To be blocked by a wall here...
Wasn’t I a broken character??
Then something fell out of my pants pocket.
It was the blue potion Isabel had given me.
“What? You had that on you?”
Celine said with interest.
...It definitely said it would let me use mana beyond my limit.
“This is pretty expensive. Isabel keeps a tight grip on it and never lets go. Want to sell it to me?”
She gave me something like this?
“They don’t even come up for sale often, and it’s mid-to-low grade... I could give you at least 50 silver.”
A month’s worth of B-cafeteria meals, or if I ate two meals a day, a week’s worth of A-cafeteria meals and even a rented wand.
I was tempted.
But...
“I’ll pass.”
I had a good use for this.
I couldn’t hand over a broken item like this.
“Really? What a shame. I was going to use it for research, but I’ve wasted so many that they won’t sell me any.”
Celine turned away as if she had no lingering regrets.
“Now head back to the dormitory, okay? Cute little lady.”
***
It was already dark outside.
But there was a problem.
I didn’t know the way.
I had to ask people for directions and find it...
I’m bad at initiating conversations first...!
“E-excuse me... I have something to ask...”
I was about to ask where the dormitory was.
“Ah, sure! Ask me anything!”
The boy answered, his face red.
As expected, being pretty makes life easier.
That logic seemed to apply here too.
“Which way is the dormitory?”
“If you go straight that way... no. Wait, is your name... Yumia?”
“Yes.”
“A- a walking bomb! A mobile landmine?!”
He ran away on the spot.
‘How did things end up like this...?’
Aris welcomed me back after I somehow returned to the dormitory.
“Um... are you okay?”
“I’m fine except I’m really hungry...”
“Would you like some of my snack?”
Concern colored Aris’s cute face.
It was a sweet offer, accompanied by a warm smile.
I ate the cream bun Aris offered me while listening to the rest of the class content.
“The professor said to picture the magic circle in your head. Even if you don’t understand it at first, imagining it will activate the magic.”
“That’s what he was explaining?”
“Commoners usually come in having learned almost nothing, so Yumia, you’re really amazing! Not only did you succeed right away, but the power was outstanding too! I didn’t expect you to collapse, though...”
“Is my mana really that little...”
“...Yes. For this practice assignment too, we’re supposed to use basic magic more than ten times a day and write a report by next week...”
“...Ten times.”
And I’d just been told five times, and now ten.
I went in to wash up.
When I came back out, Aris was already asleep.
But what about tomorrow?
I couldn’t keep living like this every day.
I needed a solution.
‘But even coming up with one is such a pain...’
“Nheee.”
My small body flopped onto the bed.
A good bed, a good scent.
“The problems I have right now...”
For starters, little mana, an empty stomach, Karanov being obnoxious, and clothes that were starting to smell dirty.
Wasn’t there a way to solve everything at once?
If I got an ability and entered the tower...
Wait.
The tower?
What was the reason I’d been trying to climb the tower in the first place?
I was climbing it to become stronger.
Because climbing the tower could grant status bonuses, artifacts, additional abilities, or traits.
And status included mana.
Then was it possible to climb the tower now?
YES.
Could I become stronger by climbing the tower?
YES.
Am I hungry?
YES.
It was already midnight, so the dormitory front gate was closed.
Going into the hallway was also a bad choice because of the dorm supervisor.
I opened the dormitory window.
But this was the fourth floor.
“Hmm.”
“I probably won’t die.”
I jumped straight out.
***
“What kind of brat is that?”
Karanov muttered to himself in his office.
He recalled Yumia from earlier.
Yumia had collapsed, and the top student who had cleanly succeeded at the spell left the classroom.
‘As expected, the top student is different.’
‘The runner-up seems... a bit dangerous. Though she is pretty...’
The other kids praised her, saying the top student really was different.
“Idiots.”
It wasn’t that the other students failed to cast the magic.
Like the top student, it was possible to adjust output and stability by instinct.
But only Yumia properly interpreted the magic circle and adjusted the power and stability.
He wasn’t seeing things.
She was definitely raw talent.
If Yumia came into the research lab.
There would be one more person who could fulfill the family’s long-cherished wish.
‘If only it weren’t for that arrogant attitude...!’
Of all people, the promising talent he found turned out to be a brat.
How could this even happen?
But Karanov quickly changed his mind.
He grinned.
She’d hit a wall around rank 3 anyway.
Or she’d be stopped by that small mana capacity.
‘In the end, she’ll come looking for me.’
Then he could make his authority as a teacher sink in for that arrogant girl, Yumia.
Still, she was at least somewhat reasonable.
He prepared the materials for the next class and opened the classroom door.
The lecture was basic math.
It was the subject he considered most important.
The class content was to interpret and discuss the magic circles from the basic magic course.
This time, he would point out Yumia’s mistakes and break her arrogance.
A smile spread across Karanov’s face, so faint that you’d miss it unless you looked closely.
But when he called the roll, one person was missing.
“Yumia.”
“Yu Mia.”
“Professor.”
“Robert, I didn’t ask you to answer.”
“She didn’t show up.”
“...? Are you saying she didn’t come to my class?”
“No, she fled. Out of the school.”
“What?”
Veins bulged on Karanov’s smiling face again.