Chapter 61
For now, let's eat the elixir first.
Let's do that!
Adrian spread out a mat.
And generously released her mana.
If Adrian did that, there was no need to draw a magic circle.
A magic circle was for gathering one's own mana, and Adrian was the source of natural mana in this area.
Let's hurry it up.
Actually, one of the reasons I came here was just to drink with Adrian.
It was better to finish quickly.
This should help if you drink it too.
Adrian held out a pure white bottle.
A small, heavy bottle that glittered in the moonlight.
Hm?
It's a medicinal liquor. It contains various kinds of mana, so it helps blend the ingredients together.
There was something like this?
I was originally going to give it to you a long time ago, but you absorbed elixirs so quickly that I never had the chance.
According to the herbology book, my observation eye, and Adrian's knowledge.
These herbs were the kind you could just chew raw without any problem.
You did have to leave a little time between them, but even if you ate them one after another, there wouldn't be any real issue.
Well, if she's giving them to me, I might as well take them.
[Thousand-Year Ginseng(SR) x 5]
Increases maximum mana.
[Winter Tree Fruit(SR-) x 10]
If you chew it thoroughly, it increases your maximum mana.
[Star Bellflower(SR) x 3]
When ingested, increases the user's mana.
It has pollen with a sweet, distinctive fragrance.
.
.
.
I decided to start with the Thousand-Year Ginseng.
So I stuffed three roots into my mouth.
"Eeeugh! Sooo bitter!!"
I immediately washed it down with a few sips of the medicinal liquor.
Sweet heat spread through my mouth, driving away at least some of the bitterness.
Adrian smiled nearby and said,
"I don't eat that. I tried it before, and it was incredibly bitter."
"You should've said that first...!"
Well, saying it now wouldn't change anything.
The elixirs Adrian brought were in processed form.
By contrast, this was a raw root.
Trying to eat it as-is was truly hell.
"That's why they process it..."
"Right?"
First, I had to sort out the mana that had entered my body.
I closed my eyes and fused it with my own mana.
Blue mana and red mana.
Half of it kept trying to be drawn toward the red mana above, but no way.
If it got pulled over there, it'd just burn up and disappear.
The herbs' mana was far less dense than my own mana.
Of course, there was a lot of it.
'Slowly... slowly...'
I absorbed the herbs' mana into my own mana.
"Done."
"Then let's move on to the next one!"
Wanting to finish quickly and chat, Adrian helped eagerly too.
I turned my attention to the other herbs.
* * *
"Uuugh..."
Tears came to my eyes.
It was sour, spicy, and bitter.
Of course, the payoff was certain.
[Mana(B+)]
from
[Mana(B+++)]
to
Just by simple calculation, four times.
But on top of that, there were the stat selection tickets from floors 8 and 9.
I took out an SR-grade ticket and used it.
[Your mana breaks through one wall!]
[Your mana reaches a very high level among humans!]
[Mana(A+)]
My own mana increased like crazy.
From here on, I probably wouldn't have to worry about running out of mana.
Of course, if I wanted to keep up with guys like Aris and Robert, I'd need to raise it a little more.
Now I should save the enhancement tickets for other stats, and I should also think about using dragon mana.
According to Sera, the more you use enhancement tickets, the less efficient they become.
So maybe even an SR-grade enhancement ticket could have broken through the wall of A-rank.
Since I wasn't using enhancement tickets on mana much at all, it seems to have risen this much.
"Oh, an interesting item."
"Hm?"
"Is that the 'system' you mentioned? It feels familiar."
Adrian thought for a moment, then smiled.
"I'd like to see you use mana, older sister. Could you show me?"
"Hm?"
I'd already shown what it looked like when I used mana plenty of times...
No.
So that's what it was.
I activated Dragon Eyes and drew in dragon mana, holding it at my fingertips.
"This?"
"Yeah. You've gotten pretty skilled, haven't you?"
"I guess so."
I hadn't actually used it, but I'd kept practicing pulling it up and mixing it with my own mana.
"You still have a long way to go before it's completely mixed... but at this level, it's not bad."
"Could it break through Karnarov's defense magic?"
"Hmm... that man's defense magic is a little special. And the output device's performance is far too lacking."
"Output device?"
"If you fire a dragon's breath through a staff, of course its performance is going to be much lower than a dragon's jaw, isn't it?"
"...That is true."
Just by size alone, it's the difference between a faucet dripping water and a pipe as thick as a person.
It would depend on the staff, but at the very least, the difference was definitely huge.
"But at least if it's not full power, it should make for a decent spell for keeping them in check. Dragon mana demands absurdity."
"Then I guess so."
In fact, just concentrating dragon mana in my eyes made the world look as if it had stopped.
"It would be nice if I could give you a little more blood."
"Huh?"
"Nothing. Anyway, try to get a decent output device!"
In other words, get a good staff.
Well, then...
It was time to give a reward to the little sibling who'd worked so hard.
"I brought this over from the modern world."
It was none other than spicy jokbal.
Adrian lowered her gaze to the food that appeared in midair.
"W-what is this? It smells incredible!"
Meat braised with all kinds of spices.
It's not quite the same kind of flavor assault as chicken.
But it's heavy and greasy.
A dish you wrap in slightly sweet kimchi and eat.
Could she possibly resist?
I poured beer into a glass.
* * *
I spent the remaining time training aura and practicing magic.
And the weather got even hotter.
I couldn't help but praise Teacher Willis Carrier, who made the air conditioner.
After a bit of pointless messing around, and with not much time left anyway, the day came around quickly.
A vast stadium.
It seemed like any performance could be held there without issue, and the quality of the seating was also excellent.
A place you could get into by continuing past the central building without entering the practice grounds.
We had come to the place called the Basic Attack Magic final exam hall... or, more accurately, the grand hall.
"It's my first time in the grand hall since the entrance ceremony...!"
"There was an entrance ceremony?"
"What? You didn't go, Yumia?"
"It wasn't that I didn't go—I couldn't go... never mind."
I looked around.
People were bustling about.
Karnarov's research students were there too.
"Wow... I'm nervous."
"Still, they'll probably go easy on us."
We lined up inside the arena, in front of the podium where Karnarov stood, not in the stands.
Research students wearing assistant badges handed each of us a thin booklet.
"As announced, you'll fight in order from lowest combat ability to highest. Please check the distributed order sheet and rules again."
I checked the rules first.
Combat capability probably means combat power.
Sure enough, a guy like Linia could hold out for 55 seconds and reveal all of Karnarov's patterns.
Then the next person's turn would be really easy.
Even so, you can't exactly prepare a different pattern for each person.
In the end, people have habits.
It was a reasonable rule.
'But wouldn't the early order have it a bit rough?'
Before I'd even finished thinking that, Karnarov spoke up.
"There is an additional rule for you all."
"For the first ten, I will make the casting speed of spells that activate within 30 seconds five times slower."
"What?"
"Yes! I'm tenth!"
"I'm eleventh..."
But I know a thing or two.
They still wouldn't be able to block it even if it were slowed fivefold.
Even if 0.05 seconds were stretched fivefold, that would still be 0.25 seconds...
Only the tenth person gets a slight advantage.
Karnarov's voice once again split across the stadium.
"Also, for the last person, I will change the combat style for the first 30 seconds."
"What number am I?"
I hoped I was first.
Then I could fight while preserving my mana.
Of course, that was impossible.
"I can't even see a trace of him."
"Have a little conscience..."
Robert beside me shot me a sidelong glance.
Why though?
"Still, I beat them fair and square."
"Yeah, yeah, sure. Did you ambush the upperclassmen and beat them into a pulp, or what, use some hell-born warrior who crawled out of hell to turn the world upside down?"
"Uh..."
Damn it.
He leaves me speechless.
"Then I just hope I'm not the last one."
"You have no conscience. Of course you're the last one."
Aris objected from the side.
"Linia was really strong too. We'd have to flip to the back pages to know for sure."
I watched her sparring class from the stands, and Linia really was strong.
Besides, she even used an in-code during the herbology exam, so she didn't get jammed either.
Of course, it didn't seem like she had actively gone around hunting like me, enjoying ambushes and hand-to-hand combat.
If you judged only magical combat power, Linia might be stronger.
Linia could use all sorts of magic, after all.
It was Linia, after all, who added several options to our barrier.
If my hidden cards haven't been exposed, then Linia will definitely be at the very back...
"You're the last one? Good luck."
Linia said with a yawn.
"What?"
I quickly checked the booklet.
[Linia Dreamwell]
[Yumia]
Scrawled in Imperial, but clearly legible.
...Have I been found out?