Chapter 50
“Haah, no helping it. Casting, Bullet.”
Robert muttered.
Mana gathered, and the mana bullet was chambered.
But unexpectedly, the first attack was blocked with surprising ease.
“Spell jamming!!”
Because the fat third-year on the right raised his wand and shouted.
A fierce wave of mana disturbed Robert's mana flow.
The spell lost its power and vanished.
“Oh?”
The obnoxious-looking, muscular upperclassman in the center snickered.
With that scar over his eye, it was hard to tell whether he was a bandit or a mage.
“Ha. Did you think you could beat us?”
The beanpole-tall guy next to him cast a spell.
“In Code, Paralyze!”
An electric net formed of mana.
I activated Dragon Eye to its maximum and watched the spell.
Just before casting, the magic circle disintegrated as if it were breaking apart in a set pattern.
The center where the mana gathered twisted, making it harder to interfere with.
I’ve seen something similar before.
It was a spell Karnarov used when the first spell failed.
Of course, I couldn’t even begin to interpret it at my current level.
But these guys weren’t Karnarov.
[The Mathematician of the Magic Circle is activating!]
If it was just a matter of copying a mechanism I’d seen once, I could do that too.
“In Code, Shield.”
A barrier unfolded normally before my eyes.
“What! A first-year can use encryption!?”
“Teaching beginner magic should be forbidden!”
“You… even learned encryption?”
Robert looked at me, forgetting the situation too.
Well, even so, it wasn’t something I could use without practice.
The casting speed was much slower than ordinary basic magic too.
But this wasn’t the only card I had.
“Robert, cast a spell one more time.”
“If I use it without a plan, I’ll just get jammed.”
“Quit talking and follow my lead.”
They were third-years hunting down first-years.
They might not be especially skilled, but they knew a lot more than we did.
In that case, we’d have to be prepared to use everything we had.
“Casting, Bullet!”
Just then, the fat one, whose jamming effect had worn off, raised his wand to cast again.
I wasn’t going to let that happen.
Riding the wind.
“Spell ja…urgh!”
Jamming didn’t seem to do much besides blocking spells.
“Then what can you do if I get close?”
“Herald!!”
The scarred upperclassman shouted.
“Damn it, an all-rounder!? In Code, Shield!”
He hurriedly tried to deploy a shield, but
By then, a wand was in my hand instead of a sword.
“Casting Bullet, Explode.”
“What kind of activation speed is that…!”
—KWAANG!
The scarred upperclassman collapsed, his hair turning into a curly mess.
I walked toward the frail-looking upperclassman with a friendly smile.
“Now then, customer, it’s time to settle the bill.”
“W-wait! I’ll give you all the herb cans! I’ll give you everything, so…!”
“Upperclassman, what did I say earlier?”
“Everything you have… No way. You’re not serious, are you? Underclassman?”
The upperclassman backed away, sweating buckets.
“What’s wrong? Being generous to your juniors is a virtue of seniors, isn’t it?”
“Nooo, not the magic tools and the flag!!!”
He ran desperately, but I caught up with him in a light leap.
“It’s okay. By the time you wake up after a nap, it’ll all be over.”
All the pain and misery will be gone.
Of course, your clothes and magic tools will be gone too.
And the flag you mentioned too.
I raised my wand.
“S-Spell jamming!!”
He tried to jam me.
Waves of mana burst from his wand.
“In Code, Bullet, Explode.”
But I already understood the gist of the encryption.
Against an opponent who was already terrified stiff, it didn’t matter how horribly slow the casting speed was.
A localized explosion erupted starting from beneath his feet.
“You should’ve used a shield.”
His consciousness cut out there.
* * *
“What a nasty bastard…”
I looted all the magic tools the upperclassmen had prepared so ambitiously and shoved them into my inventory.
[High-grade Potion (SR-) x3]
[Communication Triplet Crystal (SR)]
[Mana Stone (SR)]
[Mana-Sealing Cloak (SSR)]
[Mana Lantern (R)]
.
.
.
And many other items.
I shouted with a huge grin.
“Kiya, what a haul!!”
Then I turned to Robert with a dissatisfied look.
“But why can’t I take the wands?”
“Trying to seize someone’s wand is an act tantamount to a declaration of war against their family. Do you think other people replace their wand several times a year like you do?”
“Weren’t they consumables?”
“Even consumables have their limits.”
Then we opened the herb bags.
This was basically the main event.
“Robert.”
“Why?”
“Look at this.”
“They said the third-year exam started four hours early, but I didn’t expect them to have gathered this much.”
The herb bags were stuffed full of herbs.
We looked at each other and nodded.
We decided to change our target from herbs to third-years.
* * *
That didn’t mean we moved without a plan.
First, before setting a concrete plan, we assessed our own strength and the enemy’s.
“At that level of skill, they could at least pass the Empire's Rank 3 mage certification.”
We thought of the scarred upperclassman and the rest.
Even Robert, a top first-year student, wasn’t much help, and I barely won by exploiting a mage’s weaknesses in close combat and psychological warfare.
But the payoff was incredibly sweet.
“Now that we’re here, it doesn’t make sense not to shake down the third-years.”
If we put them in the inventory, there’d be no risk of losing them even if the third-years caught us and searched us.
Zero risk, high return.
It was the perfect environment for pulling off a big score!
Also, this was a mountain full of tall trees.
By using the trees, I could secure aerial mobility and even lie in wait out of sight for a surprise attack.
It was a perfect environment for me to shine.
“By the way, what’s this flag?”
“From the looks of it, it seems to play an important role in the third-years’ score.”
“Then let’s take that too.”
Maybe they’d give points if we turned it in at the registration desk?
Then it was time to put the plan into action.
“So, do you have a plan?”
“Yeah. You’re going to be the bait.”
“…What?”
Robert doubted his own ears, but the picture was already taking shape in my mind.
* * *
Robert was carrying a bulging herb bag and grumbling in dissatisfaction as he acted as bait.
Of course, there were no truly valuable herbs inside at all.
Then he ran into third-years who were targeting other students.
Most of the third-years who targeted students were in the mid-to-lower ranks.
The top-ranked ones had mostly gone so deep in that they weren’t even visible.
But for lost first-years, even those guys were a handful.
The moment they saw Robert, they licked their lips with hyena-like eyes.
In fact, they looked the part too: lanky, towering, and dressed like delinquents.
“Heh heh heh, what a cute first-year.”
“Looks like we’ll have to escort you to the entrance. We’ll take that bag as payment, heh heh heh.”
The upperclassmen approached with villainous smiles that were obvious at a glance.
Robert smoothly played the role of a frightened student.
“Wait…! Upperclassmen! This isn’t okay! My younger siblings are starving at home…!”
Robert hugged the bag as if it were precious.
He was a better actor than I expected.
That bastard is secretly enjoying this too.
“A bag that precious? I’m looking forward to seeing what rare things are inside!”
“Hand over that bag! In Code…”
Against that defenseless back.
—PAAANG!!
“KRAAAAAAAGH!!!”
Force far beyond what even most brawny hunters could produce slammed into him.
I, who had climbed into a tree, rode the wind and unleashed a dropkick straight into his back.
“W-what is this!! Magic!? In Code… Kraaagh!!”
The remaining guy tried to cast a spell at me, but
“You slow bastard.”
I immediately spun around and slammed him in the gut with the flat of my sword.
What kind of mage lets a swordsman get that close?
Though, I guess I am a mage too.
“How many runs is this now?”
“The fifth.”
“Already?”
We’d been shaking down third-year students with this scheme since earlier.
Even if they were low-ranked, a third-year was still a third-year, and Area A was Area A.
“Heh heh heh, my lovely herbs…”
The artifacts would probably fetch a few dozen gold if we sold them too.
If we’d sold the wands too, it would’ve been a few hundred gold, but once you get to that scale, it’s no joke.
According to Robert, it was enough to spark a territorial war.
I still needed to suck a little more honey out of this world, so I couldn’t touch that.
“At this point, full marks are basically guaranteed.”
Even if we only selected half of half of half of half of the herbs we had, Robert and I would still get perfect scores.
“Ugh, and even then it’s not even half full.”
“You mean your unique magic capacity? It’s quite large.”
“Yeah.”
Though in truth, it wasn’t unique magic.
Anyway, I used Robert as bait and robbed the easy third-years.
Then, when I used the combination of Dragon Eye and Observation Eye and it looked like a top-ranked student was coming, I hurriedly packed up and ran.
At my current specs, if I ran into a top-ranked upperclassman using a tricky unique magic, I’d get wiped out just the same.
Really, it was only because they were relatively mediocre among the third-years; at Reinhardt, a four-year academy, that was where third-years stood.
“You’re probably the only one who could call third-year upperclassmen easy pickings.”
Robert sighed.
Well, if I couldn’t fight hand-to-hand, I wouldn’t have even tried it myself.
“But now we can’t really find them anymore.”
They used to bite easily, but now there were almost no teams left falling for the bait.
What was going on?
Then, a sound came from somewhere.
“Form up!”
The third-years were setting up a formation under someone’s command.
“Tsk, this is a problem.”
Whoever it was, they were definitely using their head.
From the trees, I examined them with Observation Eye, and each individual’s ability wasn’t that high.
They were the same guys we’d been targeting all along.
But the number was the problem.
More than thirty third-years had gathered.
I could see quite a few of the ones I’d already robbed too.
Because third-years had learned jamming, even just five of them traveling together would drastically lower our odds of winning.
After all, even earlier we’d only won by luring them into lowering their guard and then ambushing them.
Robert shook his head.
“Hmm, this is unfortunate. Shall we start withdrawing? Ah, don’t forget that twenty percent is mine. I should be rewarded for my superb acting.”
“Wait.”
“Do you want to watch a little longer? How amusing. To think they’d be acting like that just because they’re scared of a mere first-year.”
“No, that’s not it. In that case, we could just… smash through them, right?”
I took out one high-grade mana potion from my inventory.
If I was going to use this, I needed to replenish my mana immediately.
“…What on earth are you planning to do…?”
I pulled out a golden token.
[Grand Warrior’s Token (UR)]
“That’s… a catalyst for summoning magic?”
“Watch carefully.”
Riding the wind, I climbed onto a tree near the formation.
They were keeping watch on their surroundings while busily gathering herbs.
Even with the plunder rule in place, they were cooperating.
But.
They wouldn’t see this coming.
“Come. Leokan.”
[Heroic Spirit, the Chain-Breaker responds to the user's call!! Manifestation time remaining: 7 seconds!! Replication rate: 1%!!]
—KWAOOOOOONG!!!!
With a thunderous roar that shook the mountain, a house-sized giant landed in a cloud of dust.
The upperclassmen’s eyes went so wide they looked ready to pop out.
I drank one of Isabel’s potions.
Now the manifestation time had increased to about ten seconds.
“W-what, what is that!???”
“There was nothing about this in the exam!!”
“C-calm down! The other side is an examiner! They’d never demand something unreasonable from us!!”
What are they even saying?
I’m not an examiner.
Which meant it was fine if I demanded something unreasonable of them.
I lightly jumped down from Leokan’s back and gave the order.
“Do it, Leokan.”
“Yes, my lord!”
Leokan stomped his foot.
—KWAANG KWAANG KWAANG KWAANG KWAANG KWAANG KWAANG!!!
With a bright smile, the giant began to charge.
“Aaaagh!!!”
“Ruuuun!!!”
Dust and screams scattered everywhere.