Chapter 13

Chapter 13

After finishing the sixth test, we found ourselves facing the final one.

“The fact that you tried to destroy the Giant of the Snowy Mountain is astonishing enough, but the fact that you challenged it over 1,500 times is truly incredible. There will never be fools like you ever again.”

Before we headed to the final testing ground, Persica came to find us.

She had been so quiet ever since we destroyed the golem that I thought she had sulked off, but to think she would actually come to us on her own.

[If you came here to pick a fight—]

“That is not why I came!?”

After shouting that at the top of her lungs, Persica turned her head toward Ishara.

“...I am sorry.”

“Hm?”

“I was rude. Your skill is more than worthy of respect.”

As she said that, Persica handed Ishara an empty bottle.

It was the Potion Ishara had given her after their sparring match.

“The Ortanises do not forget debts or favors. If you ever need help, come find me.”

“Wow! Does that mean I can come over to hang out?”

“That is not such a casual meaning—”

“Thank you!”

Even though she had just received an invitation from a great noble house, Ishara took it as little more than permission to visit a friend’s home.

Persica stared blankly at Ishara, who was beaming and shaking her hand enthusiastically, then suddenly let out a faint laugh.

“You are the first person who has ever approached me this rudely.”

“Hm?”

“It is nothing.”

Persica shook her head and turned away.

“See you again, Ishara.”

“Bye!”

Right after Persica left, Dominic came to find us next.

“It was a pleasure fighting alongside you. If possible, I would like to meet you again outside the Selection Grounds.”

“Me too, mister!”

Without saying much else, Dominic offered a handshake.

I always thought this, but the difference in hand size was ridiculous. It was like a pipe wrench and a matchstick.

After shaking hands with Ishara, Dominic gave me only a brief nod instead.

He probably did not offer a handshake because he knew what kind of fate awaited fairies.

[I am just curious, but how old are you?]

“I turned forty-six this year.”

He was already well past forty.

Repeated training made him look a bit younger than his age, but even so, he was not really at an age suited for taking the Selection Grounds.

“I know what you are thinking. I am not at an age fit for this kind of trial. For me, it is a venture with far more to lose than gain.”

[Then why the Selection Grounds?]

“To find my son.”

A deep gaze gleamed from behind his sunglasses.

“My son disappeared below the dungeon. So I am going to find him.”

[If that is the case, would it not be better to send other people—]

“Of course, that is part of it as well.”

Snorting once, Dominic slammed his two fists together.

“If one relies only on the strength of others, can one truly be called a warrior? A proper warrior must, by all rights, act with his own hands.”

[Uh... right.]

“That is so cool! I will be cheering for you, mister!”

“Thank you.”

I really could not make sense of the way this man thought.

Anyway, once we finished saying goodbye to Dominic, the other examinees also began coming over one by one to bid us farewell.

Some nobles asked us to come find them after graduation, and others thanked us again for the Sasquatch incident.

They said they had been able to carry out the test without worrying about a Field Boss because of us.

By the time I came to my senses, we had already exchanged farewells with every examinee.

[You are secretly pretty popular, huh?]

“Of course! I am a pretty and adorable beautiful girl, and I am capable too. Wait, are you jealous right now?”

[....]

“Do not worry! You are the one I like best in the whole world, Isran!”

Well, that was certainly nice to hear.

With the final test right in front of us, we decided to finish our remaining enhancement.

That was because we had received two additional Enhancement Stones as a reward for the sixth test.

The process was the same as before: strengthening the body itself by using Swap.

We finished the first enhancement, and just as we were about to use the last Enhancement Stone, Ishara stopped me.

“Wait. Let us stop enhancing here.”

[There is still one left.]

“Not now. Later. We can still do it during the test, right?”

[That is true... but do we really need to go through the trouble?]

“But enhancement restores stamina, does it not? I thought maybe we could use it as a trump card or something.”

Hm... that did make sense.

Certainly, when the body’s physical ability rose through Swap enhancement, the amount of stamina rose along with it.

If used when exhausted, it could produce an effect similar to a recovery potion.

Divinity, when you got right down to it, only supported stamina recovery, so it definitely had its limits.

Even if it was more troublesome, this approach was more efficient.

‘I did not expect her to start thinking about exploiting bugs already.’

Unlike other things, bugs should have been a foreign concept to people native to this world, yet she had only seen it a few times and was already trying to make practical use of it.

Was this what set a protagonist apart after all?

[Fine. Let us save the last one.]

“Okay!”

[Then shall we go?]

After exchanging a high five, we walked into the testing ground in front of us.

Now only the final gate remained.

***

The theme of the final test was a boss fight.

Not a Field Boss like the Sasquatch, but a true boss that occupied a designated area.

In that sense, the atmosphere of the final test was quite different from the earlier ones.

[Listen carefully. The boss here is one that uses Aura constantly.]

“And it cannot be neutralized, right?”

[Right. That is the kind of technique it is.]

Aura was the power to reshape the laws of the surroundings to suit the user’s will.

The effect varied from boss to boss, but it was absolutely impossible to dodge.

It was possible to counter it with another Aura, but learning that was unbelievably difficult.

Aura was a kind of ultimate supreme technique that could only be learned by honing a single Trait to the extreme.

It was essentially an endgame-level skill, so learning it now was impossible.

[Well, that does not mean there is no other way to deal with it.]

There was exactly one.

A power that was not Aura, yet could stand against Aura.

[Mysticism can do it.]

Just as Magic Power had Piercing and Divinity had Recovery, Mysticism also had a signature of its own.

Unlike the other two Traits, it was an active-type signature rather than a passive one.

Parrying.

A technique that released power at the precise moment to deflect an attack and launch a counterattack.

[That is why I recommended Mysticism.]

In theory, Mysticism could deal with almost every kind of attack, including Aura.

Of course, the difficulty was absurdly high.

The timing was incredibly narrow, down to something like a hundredth of a second, and even that had to be used almost predictively because of the time it took to gather and release power.

Since it had to be used against a boss’s fast and chaotic patterns, by the time I was playing the game, there was already no one left who used it.

The prevailing opinion had been that while you might succeed once or twice by sheer luck, using it to deal with every attack was effectively impossible.

‘But not me.’

The last Trait I had finally settled on was Mysticism.

I had reached the final chapter by breaking through countless techniques, including Aura.

And if it was Ishara, who had inherited my experience and knowledge, then she would surely be able to do the same.

[I am not telling you to use it right away. Just keep it in mind.]

Parrying carried a great deal of risk.

If it failed, you had to take the enemy’s attack head-on, so the returns and the risks were sharply extreme.

It would take a lot of practice, so it was not a skill we could use here.

To begin with, we had not even unlocked the Trait yet.

[I will only help you as far as awakening the Trait. Learning and truly mastering Parrying will come after you graduate from the Selection Grounds.]

“After...?”

[You know the fairy’s fate, do you not?]

“....”

A fairy’s fate was to fall asleep.

Ishara knew that too, of course.

[I have to at least tell you what you need to learn, do I not?]

“....”

[Do not worry. You will do fine even without me.]

It was not as though we would truly be separated.

I would only be sleeping, so in practical terms I would always remain with Ishara.

I lightly placed a hand on top of her head.

[If you really miss me, then try calling my name. I will at least be able to send back a faint echo.]

There really had been an easter egg where calling the name of a sleeping fairy would make it respond with a faint resonance.

It would not wake up, of course. It was more like sleep-talking.

“So there is really no way to avoid falling asleep...?”

[Well. Not that I know of.]

In truth, it was not that there was absolutely no way.

I stared at Ishara in silence for a moment.

“Isran?”

[It is nothing.]

There were still enhancement uses remaining.

If I truly wanted to, I could use Swap to erase Ishara and take possession of a body for myself.

She did not doubt my words, so deceiving her would have been easy.

If I wanted to do it, I could.

So why had I not?

When I thought about it, the answer was simple.

Saying I would find another way to avoid falling asleep really was a flimsy excuse. I knew better than anyone that no such method existed.

I simply... did not want to use her like that.

[You remember everything I taught you, right?]

“...Yeah.”

[Good. Let us go.]

I flew forward and transmitted Thought-Force toward the testing ground.

At the signal announcing the start of the test, white light gathered at the center of the wide arena.

‘Seeing it in person, it actually looks pretty cool.’

A knight of light clad in pure white full-body armor.

At first glance, it looked about the same size as Ishara, but that was because the boss of this place appeared in a form adjusted to the examinee after scanning them.

Its formal name was the White Knight of Afterimage.

That thing was the final gate we had to overcome.

[We are going to use the standard method of breaking through this one.]

Fortunately, the gimmick of the Selection Grounds boss was not difficult.

The effect of this thing’s Aura was that it did no damage to anyone who had not fully inherited the fairy’s power.

In other words, if I handed over my power completely, it could be solved quite easily.

Rather than a combat pattern, it was closer to a device meant to show off the power of Aura and advance the story.

[So before that, let us awaken the Trait.]

Mysticism was actually easier to unlock than the other two Traits.

The difficult part was its prerequisite condition that both Magic Power and Divinity had to be unlocked first, but once that was done, there was no need to take on a separate quest or gather special materials.

You simply manifested Magic Power and Divinity at the same time. That was all.

Fwaaash!

A deep blue radiance and a brilliant golden light mingled upon the sword.

The two powers, so different in nature, repeated cycles of repulsion and harmony as they gradually began to change into a new form.

[Good. You are doing well.]

The test had already begun, so our opponent was not going to stand there and watch.

The White Knight raised its sword of light and kicked off the ground toward us.

Boom!

“Kh...!”

Ishara blocked the sword strike and was shoved backward.

The White Knight’s method of attack was one of copying its opponent, so what we were facing now was a swordsman who fought in exactly the same manner as Ishara.

“Why does the way this one uses a sword feel kind of like mine...!?”

[Not kind of. It is exactly the same.]

More precisely, it was slightly stronger than the original.

Surpass yourself... that kind of catchphrase, I suppose, though it was not exactly modern in spirit.

Ordinarily, once the fairy’s power was fully inherited, the fight could be cleared immediately, but there was one more thing I wanted to teach her here.

[Keep up both Magic Power and Divinity properly, and follow what I do carefully.]

Since awakening took a bit of time, I intended to teach her how to fight herself before then.

If you wanted to grow stronger, understanding your own habits and weaknesses was important too.

And I knew everything about Ishara.

Naturally, that included all of her weaknesses, and every way to overcome them as well.

[This is my last lesson.]

I took my stance first.

Following behind me, Ishara took her stance as well.

I altered the length of my stride.

The angle at which I held the sword. The center of gravity in each step.

I introduced a consistent set of changes to every element that made up the movement.

[Stay calm.]

The method for breaking through Ishara.

And then, the method for breaking through that method as well.

The final lesson I taught her was how to overcome herself.

[These are your bad habits, so be sure to study them later. Do not forget.]

“....”

This was not originally a technique that existed.

It was the most ideal destination for her, something I had devised while studying Ishara.

Because the game could not contain personal interpretation, it was a point that should have remained in the realm of imagination.

But this was a world that truly existed.

If it existed, then it could become reality.

And if there were Thought-Force and Mana, which could temper abstraction into substance... then perhaps the ideal I had carried in my heart all this time could be made manifest.

“This is....”

A genius on Ishara’s level would surely understand.

That what I was showing her now was the most ideal version of herself.

Clang! Clang!

The White Knight’s attacks, which had flowed like water, gradually began to break apart. They were blocked and brought to a halt.

It was beginning to lose ground against Ishara’s altered offense.

Ishara’s movements were definitely clumsy.

Even for someone like her, who could do anything with ease, it was only natural that if you suddenly tore away ingrained habits all at once, the body would fail to keep up with the resulting dissonance.

The reason I had never taught her this until now was because I had thought it would only confuse her if I taught her something like this from the very beginning.

In that sense, the White Knight truly was excellent teaching material.

A punching bag in the world that had the exact same attack patterns as you. What could be more perfect for correcting bad habits?

Clang! Craaash!

The White Knight was being pushed back. Ishara pressed forward.

A clear radiance of light flashed and blazed between steps so dazzling they almost resembled a dance.

[Yeah. You are doing well.]

It was fine if she was clumsy.

The parts she lacked could be filled in later.

There was still plenty of time ahead of her, so she could complete it slowly, step by step.

For some reason, I felt completely refreshed inside.

Was it because I was seeing in reality something I had always only imagined?

It brought me a tremendous satisfaction unlike anything I had ever experienced before.

Boom!

Then, the moment Ishara’s sword pierced the White Knight’s chest with perfect precision, a change occurred.

The two powers that had been mingling finally achieved unity.

Wooooong—

A brilliant violet radiance shimmered over the sword.

It looked like the distant clusters of stars in the sky, a color that resembled Ishara’s eyes.

Mysticism had awakened.

[That is enough. It is time to finish this.]

I could see Ishara bite down hard on her lip.

Would she stay downhearted for a while? She might. She was the sentimental sort.

[Take out the Enhancement Stone. We still have one left.]

“...Okay.”

While dodging the White Knight’s counterattack as it rushed back in, Ishara pulled out the remaining Enhancement Stone.

The final stone touched the sword to fulfill its role, and a soft light began to bloom.

[Now. Throw it.]

Ishara hurled the sword above her head.

That was to fulfill the Swap activation condition of “discarding it at the exact right moment.”

The light that had been wandering without a place to go seeped into Ishara, and her disrupted breathing quickly recovered.

Now, if I released the bug—

“Isran.”

In that instant, she called my name.

Ishara was smiling.

“Everything is going to be alright.”

[What are you doing—!]

The moment the light of enhancement seeped into her, Ishara instantly snatched back the sword she had thrown away.

It was still before the bug had fully been undone.

For a moment, it felt as though heaven and earth had been overturned.

Both of our hearts pounded violently.