Chapter 37

Chapter 37: Sweeping Out the Defectors (2)

Ten minutes later.

I roughly stretched out my right hand and grabbed the defector in front of me by the face.

“Grrk……!”

Then I drove Holy Power straight into the defector’s face.

“Grr… rk……. Aaaagh……!”

The defector’s limbs trembled, and he tried to grab my arm, but my speed under the effect of ‘Grace of Agility’ was twice as fast as this defector’s.

Whirl!

Before he could catch me, I spun the Holy Light Dagger in my left hand and pierced straight through his chest.

The defector, who had spat out a mouthful of blood, stopped moving.

“Phew…….”

I shook my hand and flung off the blood stuck to it.

This bastard was the last of the defectors who had rushed at my side.

“…It is easy, is it not?”

I remembered having quite a hard time here in the previous round.

Well, back then, Lucia had dealt with the defectors from the front, while I had restrained them from the rear by placing curses on them and supporting her.

Now that I was facing the defectors from the front together with Lucia, it could not help but be easy.

Above all, Holy Power was highly effective against those who had been corrupted by Demonic Aura. 

Even if they were only grazed by Holy Power, they suffered in pain and their movements slowed.

Thanks to that, I was able to eliminate the defectors faster and more smoothly than in the previous round.

“Still…….”

I swallowed a low groan and stared at the corpse of the defector who had been shooting Demonic Aura until just a moment ago.

This bastard did feel rather unpleasant, but thinking deeply about it now would not change anything.

To begin with, in the previous round, I had only fired curses from the rear. 

It was unreasonable to judge that the defectors’ strength was different from my memories based on this bastard alone.

THUD!

At the heavy sound, I turned my head back and saw Lucia, who had risen to her feet, standing still as she stared into empty air.

It seemed Lucia’s side had finished cleaning things up as well.

I passed by the corpses whose limbs had been torn apart or whose vital points had been pierced, ending their lives, and approached her.

Crack, crack…….

After releasing ‘Full-Body Demonic Armament,’ Lucia took several deep breaths to calm her body, then soon turned her gaze toward me.

“…Is that side finished too?”

“Well, yes.”

“Then let’s leave. My Order’s believers will take care of the aftermath.”

Drip… drip…….

Blood dripped heavily from both her arms and legs.

Despite her gruesome appearance, her expression and movements were not merely steady, but indifferent.

This was not something she had done only once or twice.

Even before I came, this girl must have been executing defectors alone in Saengterminum as a Demon Cult Leader.

Unable to tell anyone the truth in order to make her contract with Valak succeed, all by herself.

“Um…….”

“Hm?”

Lucia, who had somehow come close to my side, carefully spoke up.

“That light you released toward the defectors earlier. That was Holy Magic, right?”

“That is right. It is Holy Magic I learned recently called ‘Holy Light’……. Why?”

“I was just curious?”

For once, the atmosphere softened a little.

“You… have not been learning Holy Magic for very long, right?”

“That is true. I became able to use Holy Power after making a Formal Contract with a demon. I only started learning it properly after coming here.”

“Hmmm……. Is that so?”

After letting out a meaningful hum, Lucia walked past me and headed outside the barrier.

Was it just my imagination?

There seemed to be a little life in her eyes.

***

At dawn the next day.

As soon as I woke up in the dormitory, I headed to the Training Hall.

Originally, not long after the semester began, the Training Hall would be packed with students trying to polish their techniques. 

However, because it was quite early, it was quiet, without a single person in sight.

“There really is no better place to secretly practice Black Magic, is there?”

After all, the Training Hall had some of the most meticulous Security Formulas in all of Saengterminum.

In Saengterminum, which focused heavily on practical lessons, each student’s individual combat techniques were more important than anything else.

There were even evaluation matches where students sparred against one another, so if the techniques a student practiced in the Training Hall happened to leak out, fairness would be greatly compromised.

Seeing things like this, Headmaster Levia did manage Saengterminum well, even if her personality was damn awful.

Undead Serpent, summon.

Hissssss…….

The Undead Serpent rose from the Training Hall floor, but its cry sounded a little weak.

“Hmm……. Its tail is badly damaged.”

The cause was that it had endured Lucia’s brute strength head-on at the Order’s headquarters last time.

The flesh around its tail was torn in several places, exposing muscle tissue, and some parts were gouged so deeply that even the bone was visible.

That was what undead were originally like. 

Once something became undead, the decay of its body stopped, but it had no self-recovery ability.

There was Black Magic that could heal undead, but… honestly, it took a long time and was troublesome. 

It consumed a filthy amount of mana as well, so it was not particularly efficient.

Kiiiiii…….

The undead shook the end of its ruined tail, then drooped its head dejectedly.

“Are you like that because your body is damaged?”

Kirrrk… kirrk…….

“Huh.”

This undead really had been made with higher intelligence than I had expected.

There was no way I would leave a bastard like this to waste.

“There is no need to be that disappointed.”

Kiik?

I aimed both hands toward the Undead Serpent and spread my mana.

‘Authority activation.’

Crackle- whooooo…….

My brain tingled for a moment, and the mana that responded to my will was dyed violet.

“…Good. I can use it.”

A demon bestowed power based on the price the contractor had given them.

And yesterday, as a contractor, I had eliminated the defectors.

That meant I had given Valak a price, and because of that, I had temporarily become able to use authority equivalent to that price.

The authority I needed right now was…….

Valak’s authority, Reptile Transmutation.

This was it.

It was a Mid-Tier Authority that Valak, the Reptilian Demon, could use.

Originally, it was an authority that created reptilian animals, but if the formula was adjusted slightly, it could be used in a different way.

For the purpose of rapidly restoring the body of a reptilian undead.

Faaaaaa……!

The violet mana expanded and seeped into the Undead Serpent’s tail. 

At the same time, the wounded areas returned to their original state as though time itself had been rewound.

Kirrrk?

As if surprised that its wounds had healed in the blink of an eye, the undead let out an intense cry.

“It is usable.”

The mana consumption was low, and the activation speed was fast.

If I wanted to use it again, I would have to offer a price equal to it again, but if I had used only pure Black Magic without authority, I would not have finished healing it even after spending an hour on it. 

My mana would have run out before I could heal it.

A demon’s authority was not called that for nothing.

Kirrrr…….

The undead opened its eyes wide and looked at me. 

Was it moved?

Well, whatever.

“The authority works well too…….”

After reverse-summoning the undead, I lightly warmed up.

Since I had come to the Training Hall anyway, it would not be bad to practice combat techniques as morning exercise.

Auto-Casting.

Grace of Agility.

I summoned Holy Light Daggers, gripped them in both hands, and swung them while stepping.

Whirl- tap- slash- papapak!

A flurry of attacks, throwing, vital-point thrusting, vital-point slashing, cross-guarding.

After slowly reviewing the combat techniques I had made my own over twenty-seven years, I let out an empty breath.

“Haah……. My damn vitality is seriously lacking.”

I had not even moved in earnest yet, but the exhaustion was severe.

Even so, compared to the previous round, this was a tremendous improvement.

It was only this much thanks to ‘Grace of Agility.’ 

If I had not even used this, I would not have been able to move in a way that satisfied me.

After relaxing my tense posture, I wiped my sweat-soaked face and steadied my breathing.

“Phew……. If there were no backlash, I would have used ‘Full-Body Demonic Armament.’”

‘Full-Body Demonic Armament’ was strictly a last resort.

It might be different for a sturdy Beastfolk like Lucia, but if a human like me used Demonic Armament recklessly, my body would be wrecked immediately because I could not withstand the aftereffects.

“Tsk. It would be better if I could use just two Mid-Rank Holy Magic spells.”

Feeling regretful, I drew the formula for ‘Grace of Strength’ with my fingertip.

When I first cast Mid-Rank Holy Magic, I had understood about fifty percent of the formula.

It was not as if I had been idle either, so by practicing ‘Auto-Casting’ steadily at the academy, I had succeeded in raising my understanding to fifty-one percent.

That was right. 

Damn it! 

I had poured an entire week into it, and it had only risen by one percent.

Considering the period of time I had spent learning Black Magic, this was already a fairly fast learning speed, but still.

“Tsk.”

Regret was regret.

Throb…….

Look at that. 

My heart was hurting again.

Surely, just like yesterday, the spell would be canceled before it could even be cast because the strain on my heart would become too much.

Faaaa…….

Auto-Casting.

Grace of Strength.

Right. 

If it would cast beautifully like this, how wonderf…….

“…Hm?”

With a blank expression, I stared fixedly at the golden blessing cast over my right hand.

Auto-Casting.

Grace of Strength.

Wondering if I had seen it wrong, I rubbed my eyes with my arm and looked again, but it was not an illusion.

It was working.

My heart hurt a little, but anyway, it was working……?

“…What is this?”

Why was it suddenly working properly?

Auto-Casting.

Grace of Strength.

Unless my eyes were mistaken, this was definitely ‘Grace of Strength’ cast properly.

It was certainly correct, but…….

I lowered my head and looked down at my body.

Woooong…….

Auto-Casting.

Grace of Agility.

I still had not released ‘Grace of Agility’ from my body.

I had succeeded in casting two Mid-Rank Holy Magic spells before the burden on my heart reached its limit.

“Why is this working……?”

As a Black Mage, I approached this phenomenon from an objective perspective.

A person had risen a stage higher without even realizing it himself…….

“How absurd.”

Of course, there was only one word that could explain this phenomenon.

“Am I… really a genius?”

***

After finishing my practice in the Training Hall, I dragged my sweat-soaked body to the shower room provided in the Training Hall and washed up.

“Hmm…….”

After leaving the changing room, I sat on a lobby chair near the Training Hall entrance and fell into thought while drying my wet hair with a towel.

Was it because my head had cooled? 

My thoughts deepened even further.

Until yesterday, I had definitely only been able to use one Mid-Rank Holy Magic spell.

“…Why?”

Only a low-level fool who did not properly understand magic would be blindly happy just because something worked.

No matter what kind of magic it was, the factor a caster had to be most wary of was “when the magic works well, but they do not know why it worked.”

That was because there might be side effects that even the caster himself had not noticed.

After checking, I found that I now understood the Mid-Rank Holy Magic formula up to fifty-five percent.

In a single day, it had jumped from fifty-one percent to fifty-five percent, a full four percent.

It was an absurd increase, one that made it embarrassing to even compare it with a week ago.

That was why my heart had been able to endure even when I used two Mid-Rank Holy Magic spells.

Was it really because I was a genius? 

No, there was no way the reason was that simple.

If I were a genuine genius, my understanding would not have stayed stuck at fifty-one percent for an entire week.

“Oh? Brother Damon?”

Tsk, the concept of ‘Auto-Casting’ itself was so unfamiliar that I could not get a proper sense of it.

It seemed I would have to look into it separately…….

“Here.”

“……?”

Something suddenly came close in front of my eyes, cutting off my thoughts.

What I saw in front of me was…….

“…An energy bar?”

A half-unwrapped chocolate energy bar was held toward my mouth.

Only then did I stop thinking and clear my vision.

“What is this? It was you?”

“Hehe, you must have trained very hard in the Training Hall. You did not even notice I had come beside you.”

Yulia was looking down at me with a gentle smile.