Chapter 73

Chapter 73: You Are Free to Misunderstand (1)

I followed Viole and entered the Training Hall where Yulia was.

“Yuli…….”

After confirming Yulia’s appearance, Viole stopped walking and spoke to me in a low voice.

“…Let us stay like this for a moment.”

I was already doing that anyway.

Even though we had entered, there was not the slightest movement in Yulia’s actions.

It seemed she was concentrating quite deeply.

“Hoo…….”

The sight of her kneeling on one knee with both hands clasped together, offering a reverent prayer, was truly worthy of being called a Holy Knight.

Soon, after slowly rising and drawing the sword at her waist, Yulia began to pour Holy Power into the blade.

Crackle……!

Golden sparks flew from her blade.

As I watched that sight, I opened my mouth slightly.

What is with her? 

Was she practicing that?

As far as I knew, that technique should still be incomplete at this point.

Realizing what Yulia was practicing, I quickly covered both ears.

“Eek!”

RUMBLE!

No sooner had I covered my ears than the sound of thunder rang out sharply, and the Holy Power that burst from the sword violently pushed Yulia’s body backward.

Even though I had covered my ears, I could still hear a slight ringing.

“…My eardrums nearly burst.”

“Oh? You noticed?”

Viole, who had covered her ears one beat faster than me, looked at me and grumbled regretfully.

“Aww, I was hoping to see you get startled. How boring…….”

Was Viole always this playful?

Since I had never been close to her when I was a Saengterminum student before my Return to the Past, I had no way of knowing.

“Ugh……!”

Yulia, who had sprawled onto the floor, raised her upper body and shook her head resentfully.

“I thought it might work today……!”

When she met our eyes, she hurriedly closed her mouth and blinked.

“Uh… how long have you two been here?”

“Since you were praying?”

“…Please forget what I just said and did, Brother.”

I shrugged.

“Why act like this now? You had quite the temper back on the demon altar too, didn’t you? Compared to that time, this was cute.”

“P-Please forget that too!”

“You have so many demands.”

After a brief lighthearted exchange passed, I told the two of them that I wanted advice regarding Holy Power.

“Then… I will check Brother’s approximate skill level first.”

“You can currently cast up to three Mid-Rank Holy Magic spells at the same time, right?”

“Yeah. If I break down the Mid-Rank Holy Magic formulas I have learned so far, I would say I understand about… 65 percent? Thanks to ‘Auto-Casting,’ I think I can understand that much.”

At my answer, the expressions of the two of them turned subtle.

“It is not exactly surprising at this point, but aren’t you reacting far too plainly?”

“Does it look that way? The other Holy Magic Department students can do about this much too, though?”

“Those kids learned from childhood, like me and Yulia. They are different from you.”

Hmm… was that how it was?

If another Holy Magic Department student saw it, it might have looked like a sufficiently encouraging result, but as someone who had learned every form of Black Magic, my current state still felt rather unsatisfactory.

“In any case, since you can now cast as many as three Mid-Rank Holy Magic spells simultaneously, I think you have fulfilled the minimum conditions to move on to the next stage.”

“If you say minimum conditions, does that mean there is a separate passing condition?”

“Of course.”

Viole counted off three fingers.

“You have to maintain the formulas for ten minutes while simultaneously casting three Mid-Rank Holy Magic spells. You need to have at least that much Holy Power to move on to the next stage.”

“Since Brother Damon is talented, I do think you will pass easily, though.”

At her answer, which was close to certainty, I let out a light breath.

A Black Mage having talent in Holy Power? 

There was a limit to how ridiculous something could be.

Well, I was certainly benefiting greatly from the Sacred Mark.

Thanks to the Sacred Mark, fulfilling that condition did not seem particularly difficult either.

“For now, please show us by simultaneously casting three Mid-Rank Holy Magic formulas you are confident in. We will judge after seeing that.”

“Sure. Take a look.”

At the same time as I raised Holy Power in both hands, I drew the Mid-Rank Holy Magic formulas I remembered.

The Holy Power intertwined with itself, and the formulas activated on their own.

Auto-Casting.

Grace of Durability, Grace of Strength, Grace of Agility.

***

The two women carefully examined the formulas drawn on Damon’s hands, then once again marveled.

“Even if it is ‘Auto-Casting,’ his acquisition speed is truly fast…….”

“Truly…….”

Even taking into account that his understanding had risen while fighting the Demon Order, to think he could simultaneously cast as many as three Mid-Rank Holy Magic spells.

Since he had cast them with ‘Auto-Casting,’ it would not have been strange for his Holy Power to be depleted immediately, yet the formulas were stable without trembling.

The amount of Holy Power being refined inside Damon’s body was quite large.

Just as they were once again sinking into admiration while watching his growth speed—

“Huh?”

Damon’s brow furrowed.

“…What is this?”

At Damon’s expression as he began to waver, the two women encouraged him.

“Keep holding on, even if it is hard.”

“There is still a little time left.”

No matter how excellent Damon’s Holy Power Refinement Speed was, ‘Auto-Casting’ fundamentally consumed a large amount of Holy Power.

Since it consumed around ten times as much Holy Power as normally activated Holy Magic, it would not have been strange if he could not handle the Holy Power being spent.

However, the reason Damon frowned was not because he lacked Holy Power.

Damon shook his head to say that he was fine and continued.

“…You said earlier, right? The minimum passing condition was maintaining the simultaneous casting of three Mid-Rank Holy Magic spells?”

“That’s right?”

“Did some problem occur?”

“…If it is a problem, I suppose I should call it a problem? Take a look.”

Damon raised Holy Power in both hands once more.

***

While simultaneously casting three Mid-Rank Holy Magic spells for roughly ten minutes, I realized one fact.

‘…This is more manageable than before?’

The heart that contained my Holy Power did not feel as constricted as before.

So I drew one more formula, just in case…….

“Brother Damon.”

“What?”

“What is this?”

“It is Mid-Rank Holy Magic, isn’t it?”

“Yes, that is right. It is Mid-Rank Holy Magic, correct?”

“Wow……. What are you, seriously?”

Yulia and Viole asked back in blank voices.

It was troubling even if they looked at me with those expressions. 

I was startled by myself right now too.

Currently, Mid-Rank Holy Magic formulas were unfolded in both of my hands.

Grace of Durability, Grace of Strength, Grace of Agility.

And.

Healing Wave.

Four Mid-Rank Holy Magic spells, simultaneous casting.

“This is absurd…….”

Mid-Rank Holy Magic Understanding: 65 percent ⟶ 70 percent

It had jumped by 5 percent all at once.

‘Could it be because of what happened yesterday?’

I retraced what I had experienced in the Artificial Rift yesterday.

The many Mid-Rank Monster Corrupted Bodies created by Smiling Mask.

Since I had gathered those Corrupted Bodies together and paid them as the price to Valak, who was connected to the artifact…….

‘…This deserved to rise, didn’t it?’

The cause was having come into contact with a high concentration of Demonic Aura.

Even if it had only been for a short time, the concentration of Demonic Aura around me had been quite thick back then.

It seemed my understanding had risen quickly because of that.

“When did you become able to use four at the same time?”

I could not exactly tell them the truth about this.

I acted as if I knew nothing.

“Well… I do not really know either?”

“You do not know?”

“I just did it because I thought it would work.”

Viole asked back in an incredulous tone, but she would not keep digging.

After all, a true genius who had inherited a Sacred Mark at a young age was already here.

Just as I expected, Viole narrowed her eyes and looked at Yulia.

“Yulia, he really is the same type as you…….”

“…I did think he was similar from the start, but I did not know it was to this extent.”

Yulia’s eyes shone as she looked at me.

“That sort of talent is truly rare…….”

“Even if you look at me like that, I have no intention of joining the Holy Order.”

“…I-I was not thinking anything like that?”

“Do you expect me to believe that when you are avoiding my eyes?”

“Ahem, in any case.”

Yulia, who deliberately pretended not to know, changed the subject.

“At any rate, if you have already risen to this level, it should be enough for you to proceed to the next step.”

With a rather serious expression, Yulia spoke to me.

“Brother Damon, what do you think the strengths and weaknesses of Holy Power are?”

“Holy Power is optimized for healing and blessings… and any kind of Holy Magic acts lethally against Black Magic. I do think it is useful just from that alone.”

However, because it was Holy Power, there was inevitably one aspect in which it fell behind.

That was—

“Its pure destructive power is greatly lacking.”

“You understand well.”

“But that was not the case for you, Yulia.”

“……?”

Even if Holy Power displayed outstanding effectiveness against Black Magic, that was limited to Black Magic alone.

However, if that were all, the Holy Empire could not have become an ‘Empire’ like the Dark Empire.

I pointed at the sword Yulia was wearing.

“The sword strike you used against the Fallen Cult Leader before had considerable destructive power, even though it was Holy Power.”

“Hehe… I told you that you have talent.”

Wooong…….

With a faint smile, Yulia raised Holy Power in her right hand.

“We refine Holy Power and use that Holy Power as fuel for Holy Magic. You can think of it as ‘refining’ and ‘releasing’ Holy Power.”

“Refinement at the beginning, release at the end…….”

Having grasped the meaning of her words, I opened my mouth.

“Is there a separate middle stage?”

“You guessed it immediately.”

Crackle……!

Soon, a haze began to shimmer in Yulia’s left hand as well.

This time, it was not Holy Power shining with golden light.

It was a refreshing blue light.

Mana.

“If you incorporate Mana into Holy Power, you can raise the concentration of Holy Power. Of course, the caster can also adjust the concentration at their discretion.”

Yulia brought the hand with Holy Power and the hand with Mana raised closer together.

Wooong… crackle…….

Soon, the golden light of her right hand and the blue light of her left hand began to mix with each other.

The Mana came outward and began to wrap around the Holy Power in the form of a sphere.

The Holy Power did not invade the border made of Mana and quietly settled inside it.

Yulia floated the completed sphere above her right palm and spread her left hand above the sphere.

“Now, if I reduce the range of the Mana here…….”

Creak.

When Yulia clenched her left hand into a fist, the surface made of Mana narrowed, and the interior that contained the Holy Power contracted.

As a result, the Holy Power inside began to emit an even deeper golden light.

“In this way, you can raise the concentration of Holy Power.”

“Oh… so that was the method?”

I had heard that Mana was incorporated into Holy Power, but I had not expected her to show it in such a direct way.

“I suppose this was how you stored Holy Power when you fought the Fallen Cult Leader?”

“Yes. Once you grow accustomed to the method, you can even imbue a weapon with it.”

Mana became the vessel that contained Holy Power, and Holy Power increased its concentration while held inside that vessel.

This was an operation method I had heard about indirectly from Sword Radiance before my Return to the Past.

Its name was probably…….

“This process is called ‘Condensation.’ It is the middle stage positioned between ‘Refinement’ and ‘Release.’”

That was right. 

Condensation.