Chapter 11
“They've all fallen!!”
“What do you mean?”
Mist was surrounded by three monsters.
They looked similar to the monsters with shark heads we'd seen earlier.
“Sleeping sickness? Or some related ability! Either way, everyone's been incapacitated!”
It was hopeless.
Mist was strong.
She was peerless even among the academy's current first-years.
But three against one was impossible.
No matter how strong she was, she was still only at a first-year academy level.
She was good enough to fight a monster one-on-one.
“.. This is bad.”
Mist's face hardened.
She was already struggling quite a bit.
I could see sweat flying from her forehead whenever she moved.
Just blocking the monsters' attacks had to be pushing her to the limit.
“For now.. I think you'll have to.. help me with the attacks..!”
Mist gradually backed away as she shouted toward me.
But there was no hint of despair in her voice.
Did she still think.. this was manageable?
Maybe she had judged that I wasn't all that weak.
Mist had never fought alongside me, after all.
She didn't know I was a sunfish.
Still.. I intended to do my best.
My life at the academy was on the line, too.
“.. I won't be much help.”
I gathered blue mana at my fingertips.
Thanks to the mana potion, the mana in my body had more or less recovered.
But even so, all I could use were Magic Missile and Energy Bolt, which I didn't know how to use properly, so that was the problem.
‘The difficulty is a little high, but.. I have to use Magic Missile.’
‘My magic is too weak to begin with, so I need to use the strongest thing I can.’
‘At least.. I might be able to aim for an environmental bonus.’
- Humm..
I desperately held on to the mana welling up above my hand.
Mana was volatile.
I had to compress it into as small a surface area as possible.
Then I had to shape it into a star.
‘I skipped through the first class by freeloading.. so my proficiency is lacking.’
The star wasn't forming properly.
In the first class, I had gained a proficiency bonus from the mana-rich environment.
Because I'd quickly skipped past that through freeloading.. that was the problem.
I could get good grades easily.
But my actual magical proficiency had increased less.
But I didn't regret it.
The freeloading I'd done in that class had been the best choice for me.
‘It can't be helped. Even if it's crude, I have to make it work.’
In the first place, working hard wouldn't have let me cast magic dramatically better.
I should have clawed my way up from the very bottom as much as possible.
I don't regret it.
“Make some room on the left!!”
At my words, Mist quickly moved to the right.
At that moment, one of the monsters locked eyes with me.
- Kieeeek!!!!
The monster shrieked as if it were about to charge at me.
But I was already prepared.
- Whoooosh..
A blue star rose into the air.
The inside of the cave was dominated by the red light of the campfire.
Yet at the same time, the darkness of night had settled in.
‘Magic Missile possesses the properties of a star.’
‘A Magic Missile with the properties of a star corresponds to the attribute of nothingness, which has no special traits.. but this time is different.’
I looked at the star hovering in the air.
The star.. held a very small, faint light.
But it felt as bright as broad daylight.
‘The cave is dark like night.’
‘The star breaks through the darkness of night.’
‘A star in the daytime sky is a faint presence that can't even be seen..’
‘But a star in the night sky comes to possess the attribute of light (光). In other words, Magic Missile has the light attribute right now.’
This was why I'd forced myself to create [Magic Missile].
This game had an extremely unusual and vast attribute system.
‘Now that it has taken on the light attribute (光), the strongest attribute in the game.. it must have gotten stronger.’
‘… I made it by pushing myself too hard.. Please, let it land a meaningful hit.’
Stars at midday couldn't even be seen.
But stars in the darkness became guides for navigators.
They also became a source of joy for children.
They became memories for adults, too.
And so.
The star was reconstituted as light (光).
‘Please!!’
A powerful light burst from the Magic Missile I'd created.
This wasn't.. a feeling or an illusion.
It was the manifestation of a peculiar property called an environmental attribute (env - Element).
“Magic Missile!!”
- Flash!!
The cave turned into broad daylight for an instant.
It was unmistakably the attribute of light.
- Kieeeek!!!
“It hit!!!”
It was a weak spell with only a tiny amount of mana.
But even a weak spell could display tremendous power depending on its environment.
That was one of the systems in this game.. no, in this world.
The butterfly effect.
Just as the fluttering of a butterfly's wings could cause a storm on the other side of the earth.
A small trigger causing a massive explosion.
But.
Did you know?
The butterfly effect doesn't actually exist.
Even if a butterfly flaps its wings, no typhoon forms on the other side of the earth.
And.. I was able to learn that fact the hard way.
- Kreeeeek!!
The spell struck the monster directly.
The Magic Missile with the light attribute set part of the monster's body on fire.
Some of the monster's flesh fell away.
It writhed in agony.
But it didn't die.
It didn't fall, either.
“Ah..”
“Nice!!! I think we can kill it if we hit it a few more times!”
Mist said in a hopeful voice.
From her perspective, it was hopeful.
Since all we had to do was create this situation a few more times.
But there was a problem.
“.. I don't think I can use it anymore.”
“Huh?”
I drew mana up into my hand.
The mana wouldn't gather fully in my hand.
“Maybe one more Magic Missile.. and one Energy Bolt..?”
Mist was behind me, so I couldn't see her expression.
But I could feel her mood grow dark in an instant.
“I don't think we can take them down.”
“Probably not.”
“If we retreat.. what will happen to our teammates?”
I could hear her voice trembling.
Because it was a question with only one predetermined answer.
Naturally.
The kids behind us would die.
“They'll fucking die.”
“.. We can't let that happen.”
“If you don't want that.. then somehow kill them.”
“.. Can we kill them?”
I didn't answer.
That was probably answer enough.
The answer: - We can't take them down.
A sigh escaped me.
Things had gotten too tangled.
If Ena and I had been the ones who were awake, maybe there might have been a chance.
‘.. We don't have enough damage.’
‘Mist's strength lies in defense, so she can't deal enough damage to finish them.’
‘There's no way one Magic Missile can take down three monsters.’
‘Is there.. really no way?’
No.
There was still a way.
‘The mana I'd stored in the tennis balls.. I think I'll have to use it somehow.’
- Zziiik!
“Just hold on a little longer!”
I took a tennis ball out of my bag.
I could feel blue mana inside it.
‘This.. at most, contains enough for one Energy Bolt per tennis ball.’
‘It's horribly inconvenient to cut open and extract the mana, but.. there is a way to use it.’
A magic circle.
Not the primitive magic circle Professor Naia had mentioned..
A real magic circle.
Specifically, a trap (Trap).
‘I made it in case we had a dueling class..’
During dueling class, there wasn't much I could use.
It would obviously be insane for me to stand on the front line and swing a sword.
There were kids who had been swinging swords for decades.
It would be suicide.
Magic was similar.
If so, what on earth could I do to win?
I could win by fighting dirty.
A trap (Trap).
That's why I'd made tennis balls filled with mana: to create a trap.
And if I could just use that trap now..
We had a chance!
“Again! Can you make some room?!!!”
“.. I'll try!!”
- Clang!! Clang-clang!
Mist had barely managed to clear a space.
‘.. We don't have much time. I can see her stamina running out.’
“I'm staking everything on this.. Hit them..!”
- Whoosh!!
I threw the ball with all my strength.
- Grrrrrrrrr!!!!
“Take this, you morons!!”
The monsters heard my voice and looked at the tennis ball.
- Grrr!!! Grrr!
Naturally, the monsters realized that something was strange about the tennis ball.
My confident voice.
The blue mana that looked dangerous.
Didn't it look like something you obviously shouldn't touch?
So the monsters avoided the tennis ball.
- Tap.
“Huh?”
I looked at the monster, bewildered.
It dodged that?
- Grrr! Grrr!!
The monsters laughed at me.
“.. Huh?”
Mist's body stiffened too, as if confused.
It felt like she was asking if that was really all.
No. It wasn't over.
“One more time!!”
- Grrr!!! Grrr!!
I threw the tennis ball again.
But the ball was too slow.
It wasn't a baseball; it was a tennis ball.
This wasn't a baseball player's pitch, but an ordinary person's throw.
Naturally.
Hitting them wasn't easy.
“A.. Again!!”
- Tap.
- Tap.
- Tap..
Every time I threw one, the monsters dodged it.
Far too easily.
“I.. I can't hold out any longer!!”
From Mist's body.
Blood, not sweat, began to flow.
But.. even that was okay.
It didn't look like a serious injury.
The real problem was..
‘.. There are no more tennis balls.’
I had no means left.
- Grrr!!!
The monsters were cunning.
Seeing that my bag had grown lighter, they lost interest in me.
They must have realized that I had nothing left I could do.
But.
That was the monsters' blunder.
I swallowed once.
Then I shouted.
“Mist!!! Fall back!!!”
I gathered every bit of mana in my body.
A tiny amount of mana, only enough to fire a single Magic Missile.
I shaped that mana, which could fit in a single hand..
into a small star.
“I.. I'll fall back for now!!!”
“Get back right now…! I'm firing!!”
- Whoooosh!!!
The small star.
Left my hand.
And.. the star slammed into the ground.
Into the empty.. wasteland of the cave.
“.. Huh?”
Mist looked at my face with a flustered expression.
As if she truly found it absurd.
I understood.
Her trump card had disappeared.
But this wasn't the end.
“Explode!!!”
- Flash!!!
A massive flow of mana rose from the ground.
That flow soon became a star.
“Magic Missile!!!”
The inside of the cave filled with light.
A spell that possessed the power of a star.
That power of the star had filled the dark cave with light.
- Kxek!! Kieeeeeek!!!
The monsters burst into flames in an instant.
The powerful force of light.
It possessed the power to purify monsters in an instant.
Startled by this powerful light, Mist looked at me.
“H.. How? How did you use magic like this..?”
“Trap (Trap).”
‘Normally.. you set up a trap in advance before using it, but.. sometimes circumstances make that impossible.’
But it wasn't possible to set up traps in advance in every situation.
In fact.. there usually wasn't time to set them up.
So I thought of something.
‘In that case, deliberately miss an attack to leave behind by-products, then use them.. as a medium.’
I'd missed some of the tennis balls.
Thus, I'd worked to create [Star] with the tennis balls.
So that the distances between each of the five balls.. would be evenly spaced.
‘I only came up with it to test later..’
‘It actually works..’
Honestly, it had been a gamble.
It was a technique that had never even been discovered in the game.
I'd succeeded.
If this situation were a game right now.
A notification window reading [Skill Discovered!] would have appeared.. right..?
Or maybe it wouldn't have been implemented at all.
I sighed inwardly and looked up at the empty air.
And then..
[Congratulations. You have survived.]
A hologram that made me sigh just by looking at it—the equivalent of a death threat—was all that appeared.
‘Instead of this damn hologram.. why not give me a status window?’
This world was a much more fucked-up place than I'd imagined.