Chapter 77
The spellbook was really easy to read.
I was even somehow able to understand it.
No, "I became completely absorbed in it in an instant" would be more accurate.
The knowledge and the magic circles kept reacting to my traits, making me keep reading the text.
By the time I'd read through the first dozen-odd pages and the magic circle had been hammered into my head.
"Nghhhh..."
[The magic-circle mathematician is on the verge of overload!]
[Your circuits and knowledge are reacting!]
[Trait [Inventory(SSR+)] disappears!]
[Skill [Oz Caster(???)] is added!!]
[There isn't enough circuit capacity! When Oz Caster activates, penalties will apply to all magic except Inventory!]
...Huh?
Give it back.
"Hmm. An incomplete circuit. Interesting."
Karnarov had apparently been watching silently.
He said that and raised his staff.
"It's late, so use this to get a feel for it."
"...Yes?"
"This is short-range teleportation. Aim for 50 meters."
And then he cast the spell.
"Oz Caster, Silver Shoes."
Karnarov's magic was perfect.
So I didn't feel the slightest hint that anything was off.
Right up until I found myself in front of the dormitory building's main gate.
A vivid red sunset flowed between the clouds.
Only when I saw a drifting leaf land on my head did I realize I'd been teleported.
It wasn't even chantless casting, and the activation speed was ridiculously slow.
It was as if he was saying, go ahead and learn it if you can.
"What the heck is this?"
I put the staff into my Inventory.
Fortunately, Inventory worked fine without any mana consumption.
But I still had no idea what was going on.
* * *
"Um, what's this?"
"A new assignment... well, not exactly."
It's basically an assignment.
"Ugh. Such a pain... Casting, Arc Pencil."
I decided to deal with the real assignment first.
It feels like the semester hasn't even been underway for two weeks, and they're already handing out assignments.
Unreasonable beyond belief.
Aris sat across from me at the living room table.
She seemed to be studying something else as well.
A report written to match the Type 1 format.
The reason I wasn't writing a Type 2 was simply because I was too lazy to relearn the format.
Type 1 was just easier.
"Your ghostwriting magic is incredibly good, huh?"
"I spent the whole vacation grinding nothing but this like crazy."
Actually, I didn't just do this; I rested and did other things too.
"There probably aren't people at school who can use ghostwriting magic this well, except for the professors..."
Aris wasn't used to ghostwriting magic, so she was still writing by hand.
Meanwhile, I was slowly eyeing the throne of the copier.
Honestly, keyboards and copiers are more convenient.
I'll bring one over later.
And take care of all sorts of other problems too.
"By the way, your Imperial language is really good? Weren't you using an entirely different language earlier?"
"...I guess so."
It suddenly struck me that the Blessing of Language was also an insanely broken trait.
Aris looked at the ballpoint pen writing the report nonstop.
She seemed to find that more mysterious than ghostwriting magic.
"People who can read and write Imperial at this level are rare unless they're nobles..."
Because the Blessing of Language even translates the ancient language Leokan uses.
Leokan just turns into a foreigner whenever he's around other people.
"So this really was unique magic after all..."
"You really didn't know?"
I suppose that couldn't be helped.
About thirty minutes passed.
"Yaaay! Done!"
I raised both arms in celebration.
The report was densely packed.
It had turned into something like a short paper on spell jamming, weight increase, and barrier magic.
Well, thanks to it, I got some pretty interesting magic too.
"Casting, Magnify."
It didn't require much mana at all.
For someone as agile as me, even doubling my body's mass made the effect pretty substantial.
Mass times velocity is destructive power.
A natural law that even someone who'd never studied much could understand at a glance.
That's why people use weapons.
Then the same principle should apply when using the body as a weapon.
'Well, even without that, it's enough if I just don't get blown away by a strong attack.'
For someone as light as me, monster battles make that a problem.
"Then, shall we learn this now?"
I'd already delivered the potions and written the report, so there was nothing left to do.
I could leisurely learn this thing called unique magic.
Aris looked at the spellbook and said.
"What an unusual-looking spellbook."
"That old man's taste is a little unusual."
He always wears nothing but drab clothes, too.
Aris seemed not to understand my answer, but she had something to do, so she didn't ask further.
[Chapter 1. Spatial Movement]
In the end, Karnarov's unique magic was spatial magic.
Then, surely I could make it work somehow?
First, I cast the magic circle and tried chanting the spell.
"Oz Caster, Silver Shoes."
...Nothing happened.
No, to be exact, the magic circle had been cast and the activation conditions were satisfied.
It just wouldn't activate.
"...What?"
It looked like I'd need more practice.
* * *
After spending about two weeks doing nothing but practicing this.
"...Silver Shoes..."
It didn't work.
I had read every spellbook I'd been given.
And aside from the time I spent in class, I did almost nothing but this.
I hardly even went out.
The magic-circle mathematician probably coughed up blood, but there was no helping it.
"Nyaaah! I get the hang of it, so why won't it work?!"
Of course, it wasn't as if I'd gotten no results at all.
I'd fixed the parts where I'd misunderstood the initial conditions, and the issue of not being able to clearly picture the magic circle itself.
And by continuing to refine it like that,
I came to understand.
It was overwhelmingly more difficult than the other spells.
If there was another object at the destination, it absolutely wouldn't work.
If the error margin exceeds about one centimeter, it won't activate at all.
A single result built atop countless safety measures.
And even then, you can't use it without the circuit.
"What the heck is this?"
Maximum stability. And extreme difficulty.
And yet, the more I worked on it.
"No way, this old man even accounted for this part."
I could see just how capable Karnarov was.
Then why wouldn't it work?
I had matched almost every condition.
Check the current coordinates, and the destination too...
"...The destination?"
'You must properly imagine the destination and chant the spell.'
That passage was definitely written there.
But what does it mean to imagine the destination?
I'd been imagining the scenery at the destination the whole time.
But what if that wasn't it?
Ten meters in front of where I am now.
Then maybe I was supposed to imagine that coordinate?
I formed an image of myself walking there.
How far it was from here.
Keeping only that in mind, I chanted the spell.
"Oz Caster, Silver Shoes."
And with that, the scenery changed.
A pitch-black night sky, people who looked small, and... the dormitory building.
The trick is to imagine the exact distance, starting from my own coordinates!
But the problem was that it was off to the side, in midair!
I was falling!
"Waaah!! Silver Shoes!"
Panicking, I tried to pull myself back inside, but the activation speed was slow, so I ended up in a room a few floors below.
The scenery changed once more.
And I landed on someone.
"Nyaaah!!"
"Kyaaah!"
Looking at the person underneath me...
"S-Senior?"
Chloe's light blue eyes turned toward me as she touched the thing she'd been working on.
"Ah, sorry."
So this was Chloe's room.
"W-wait!"
"Oz Caster, Silver Shoes."
I somehow managed to keep my wits about me and desperately used the magic.
There I was, dangling from the railing.
I grinned.
"Yesss!!"
It took two whole weeks, but I finally succeeded!
The sense of accomplishment was no joke.
The basic attack spell had also succeeded after just a few tries, and the defense spell had succeeded on the first try.
This was the first time a spell had taken me this long to learn.
"At least I got the hang of it."
I'd obtained a pretty interesting spell.
Its activation speed and range couldn't even compare to Karnarov's.
But hey, something's better than nothing.
It was the same when I first got the basic attack spell, too.
It would take me a long while to catch up to a monster like Karnarov.
Ugh.
"Since I'm at it, maybe I should take a little walk!"
My body had gotten pretty stiff from sitting around the whole time.
I needed to loosen up with a little walking.
As I was gliding through the night sky on the wind,
I caught sight of a familiar back.
"Professor Georgia?"
A professor of Imperial History, and a figure known to be part of the noble faction.
Last time, he tried to set up something that gave off demonic energy at the school.
"I don't like this."
Stirring up trouble is my exclusive privilege.
I absolutely can't hand it over to anyone else!
This was high above the eastern forest.
I rode the wind and glided like a flying squirrel, clinging to a nearby tree.
And I spotted one very large boulder.
And behind it, a stone gate.
Professor Georgia took out a crystal emitting a black glow.
Then.
—Rumble-rumble-rumble!!
The stone gate opened, and Professor Georgia leisurely disappeared inside.
"Oh?"
I looked at the stone gate.
"Oz Caster, Silver Shoes."
And then, I went straight inside.
I'm going to loot the place clean.