Chapter 7

Chapter  7

The forest, which should have lain quiet beneath its blanket of snow, was filled with untimely commotion.

After Ishara had defeated the boss, the examinees scattered throughout the woods had begun hunting Seolto.

“It ran that way!”

“Why are these bastards so strong?!”

“Kraaagh! My arm!”

No matter how cute they looked, monsters were still monsters. Their sharp teeth and powerful jaws could tear a person apart with ease.

Among those who had approached carelessly, there were even some who lost their lives in absurdly pointless ways.

“......”

In the middle of that disorderly forest, Persica stared blankly at the Seolto before her.

She had to take the test.

And yet she could not focus, because the image of the girl she had seen earlier kept returning to her mind.

“She killed the boss... by herself.”

That girl had hunted down a field boss so difficult that only a handful of people could defeat it, and done it as if to put everyone else to shame.

The sight of her smiling so innocently atop the fallen boss simply would not leave Persica’s head.

─SKREEE!

The Seolto lunged at the motionless Persica.

The middle of its furry body split wide open, and its grotesque teeth rushed toward her.

SLASH!

Without even looking, Persica thrust out her rapier.

It was a clean, decisive strike without the slightest wavering.

Pierced through in an instant, the Seolto sprayed blood and spat out a mana stone.

“......”

She stared at the fallen mana stone in silence.

It was only the size of a fingernail, clearly nothing compared to the fist-sized mana stone that girl had obtained.

“Grit....”

Irritation rose within her until her teeth ground together.

How had I—

How had Persica Ortanis ended up like this—

“You are not going to pick that up?”

When she turned at the sound of a voice, she found a huge man who looked close to two meters tall standing there.

It was Dominic Esmond, the middle-aged late-blooming examinee.

“Why are you here?”

“I came because I was worried.”

“Worried about who, exactly?”

Persica gestured around her.

At her feet, together with the one she had just killed, lay the corpses of countless Seolto.

The fact that she had cut them all down in a single stroke each spoke of excellent skill, but Dominic shook his head.

“Not worried about you. Worried about the others.”

“What?”

“Your edge has become too sharp. Everyone is watching you carefully.”

“So what am I supposed to do about that? It does not seem like you are afraid.”

“I am a warrior. I do not scare easily over things like this.”

With his arms folded, Dominic looked down at Persica with a deep-set gaze.

“Hold yourself in accordance with your station and set an example. Those who stand high must possess the dignity befitting it.”

“Are you trying to lecture me right now?”

“I am not lecturing you. I am giving you advice.”

Dominic did not avoid Persica’s sharp glare. He met it head-on.

When the suit-wearing barbarian refused to back down, Persica let out a low sigh.

She did not want to waste energy on this, and besides, he was not wrong.

While Persica reined in her temper, Dominic bent down, picked up the mana stone, and handed it to the fairy Cecil, who had been hovering nearby in visible distress.

Cecil flew over at once, broke down the mana stone, and infused it into Persica.

“If it were me, I would have thanked that girl.”

“Thanked her? Are you serious?”

“Of course. If not for her, this trial could not have been taken so comfortably.”

“......”

Dominic was right.

Because Ishara had killed the field boss, the examinees were able to focus on hunting in far greater safety.

Originally, this was a test where they were supposed to fight while enduring side effects and avoiding the boss.

Naturally, it would have been much harder than it was now, and many times more people would have died.

“...I could have killed it too.”

The voice that escaped from behind her tightly clenched lips was thick with resentment.

She said that, but even Persica herself knew it would have been difficult.

If she had gathered a team and fought with everything they had, they might have barely managed to kill it.

But like that girl had done—alone, and without a single injury, as if it were simple—that would have been impossible.

She felt a dark emotion gnawing away inside her.

And the moment she realized that emotion was inferiority, a rage she could not endure surged through her.

“You are saying I am worse than that lowborn girl? Me, Persica Ortanis?”

Grinding her teeth, she raised her sword.

She pierced through the Seolto that had gathered after smelling blood in a single motion.

While others struggled to kill even one, she cut down well over a dozen with a single strike.

People recoiled in shock at the blade, which now shimmered with a faint bluish haze.

“M-magic power!”

“She has already awakened magic power? At her age...!”

Magic power was an ability that was notoriously difficult to awaken.

It was hard to learn, took a great deal of time, and consumed enormous resources, so even nobles had difficulty acquiring it.

No matter how talented someone was, it took half a year just to sense mana, and a full year to manifest magic power.

And that was the standard for someone considered talented. Usually, it took far longer than that.

Among all the examinees, fewer than five had awakened magic power.

“I am not going easy on you anymore.”

She gripped the hilt of her sword tightly.

The magic power wrapped around the blade flickered with heat.

“Next time, I will win.”

The next test was “Sparring.”

Against monsters, perhaps not—but if it was a fight between person and person, she would not lose.

This time, she would win without fail.

***

While everyone else was in the middle of the test, Ishara and I had long since moved to the safe zone beyond the forest.

A circular clearing where the dense woods suddenly opened up.

This was the place where they taught the fifth trial: “PVP.”

“Cough, cough!”

Ishara collapsed onto the ground and coughed repeatedly.

Her complexion looked poor, and she was sweating so much that her damp hair clung to her neck and forehead.

It seemed the violent exertion from killing Sasquatch had put too much strain on her body.

“Cough.... Ah, I am fine now. Really.”

[You do not look fine at all. Do you want to rest a little?]

“No!”

[Then at least drink a Potion. You are going to make yourself seriously sick at this rate.]

“It is fine. It would be too wasteful to use it on something like this.”

She looked obviously ill to anyone with eyes, yet Ishara had no intention of resting, and she refused to drink even a Potion.

The next trials really were difficult, but she had two bottles anyway, so using one should have been fine.

And yet Ishara stubbornly chose not to drink it and saved it instead.

‘...Well, even if she drinks it, it will not do much.’

A Potion would not improve her illness.

At best, it would only dull the pain, and it was true that using one as a painkiller felt wasteful, so I did not press her any further.

“When does the next test start?”

[It will begin after the previous one is completely finished. For sparring, you need an opponent.]

In the game, an opponent could just pop into existence, but this was reality. Just because we arrived early did not mean the test would start early too.

So, since we had some time to spare, I decided to help her absorb the mana stone.

[You still have the mana stone, right?]

“Yes. Here.”

Ishara took out a bluish stone about the size of a fist.

It was the mana stone that Sasquatch had spat out upon dying, and it had one more effect besides leveling up.

[If you absorb this, you should be able to use magic power too.]

It could unlock “Magic Power.”

In Ethrana Exodus, there were three “Traits”: “Magic Power,” “Divinity,” and “Mysticism,” and a character’s build was determined by which of those traits they chose as their main focus.

These traits were not unlocked from the start, so you had to personally go out and unlock them yourself, and magic power was the most commonly used of the three.

“But I do not know how to use magic power. I have never learned it.”

[That is fine. Even people who have never learned can use it.]

Sasquatch’s mana stone had the ability to forcibly unlock the trait of your choice in addition to leveling you up.

It let you skip the trouble of receiving a prerequisite quest and running around doing errands.

‘We start with magic power.’

In the end, all three traits had to be unlocked anyway.

Magic power depended heavily on your weapon, so it had to be discarded later on, but considering the trials ahead, it was better to learn it first.

Each trait had its own unique attributes, and among them, magic power was particularly useful here.

“Mmm... This feels strange.”

Mana stones could be absorbed through a fairy, and after graduation, you could go to a priest instead.

Now that her magic power had been unlocked, Ishara wore an odd expression, as if something about the feeling was strange.

“It feels like I suddenly grew an extra pair of limbs I did not have before.”

[That is probably how it feels at first. You will get used to it as you use it.]

Probably.

I had only ever read explanations of this power, so I did not really know what it felt like in practice.

All I knew was that mana existed in the world, and depending on how it was refined and manifested, it branched into the powers of Magic Power, Divinity, and Mysticism.

[Magic power is made by drawing the mana in the air into your body and refining it. Breathe it in and feel it.]

Sitting cross-legged, Ishara drew mana in through her breathing and slowly sensed the energy making one full circuit through her body.

Of course, I was not just sitting around doing nothing either. I copied the same thing right in front of her.

A fairy might not be able to use magic power, but there was no harm in learning.

‘So that is how it works.’

Maybe it was because I already understood the theory so thoroughly, but as I watched, I found myself naturally grasping the process by which mana was transformed.

It felt as though, if I had a body, I could start using it immediately.

At that moment, I almost regretted not having a real body.

“Waaah....”

And then, after doing something akin to breathing and circulation exercises for about an hour— Ishara’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the bluish haze rising from her fingertips.

“It is beautiful. This is my magic power?”

[That is right. It is only like a haze for now, but the more you train, the clearer it will become.]

Since it was a forcibly unlocked trait, I had expected at least a little fumbling, but there was none of that.

Ishara used her newly awakened magic power as naturally as if it had always been there.

“This is amazing. Is it usually this easy?”

[I have heard it is not, but... I am not really sure.]

I had also felt mana and used it immediately, so maybe it really was not that hard.

Once she succeeded the first time, she seemed to get hooked. Even while sweat poured down her face, Ishara kept smiling.

[Are you not tired? There is no need to push yourself.]

“I am so happy.”

[......]

So it was not that she was not struggling.

It was just that she was enjoying all of it.

Whether that was because she had discovered a talent she never knew she had, or simply because she loved learning something new, I could not say for sure.

But the bright smile on Ishara’s face was genuinely pleasant to see.

“Let’s keep going!”

Even without me urging her, Ishara resumed her training.

Well, there was no reason for me to stop her either, because training with Ishara was helping me a great deal as well.

‘So that is the method.’

A genius stood before me—someone who learned a thousand things from a single lesson.

By teaching her, I was learning at the same time, and it also became a chance to shatter old ideas that had hardened within me.

Ishara learned from me, and I was refined through Ishara.

It was a cycle of learning.

How much more time passed like that, I did not know.

[That is enough. The others are here.]

The people who had finished the test had returned.

***

Those who had completed the trial were sprawled all over the clearing.

They were all panting in exhaustion, but since they had apparently met the level cutoff, their complexions were far better than before.

[The next trial is PVP... no, personal sparring.]

The theme of the fifth trial was PVP, one of the few multiplayer elements in the game.

There had been a place called the Arena in Ethrana Exodus, and if you went there, you could match with other users and fight.

The balance had been horrible, but it was fun, so when I got fed up from running dungeons, I used to spend time there.

“Mmm... If it is sparring, is it a fight to the death?”

[Not here, I think.]

In the game, it simply ended when the other side flopped over and said, “I lost!”

Well, if you struck once more with your blade, you probably could kill them, but if you did not feel like it, you could just move on to the next trial.

“If it is that kind of thing, then fine.”

[Oh? You sound confident. Do you think you can win?]

“Mmm... I do not know. But I should still do as much as I can!”

So it was not exactly confidence that she would win.

It was less “I will do it!” and more “Let’s give it a try!”

It sounded a little reckless, but in truth, that was the harder mindset to possess.

It meant she knew she was at a disadvantage, but would still challenge it without losing heart.

[Then listen to me carefully.]

But I was certain.

My knowledge was the strongest in this world, and Ishara, who had learned from me, was—

[You are invincible.]

“Mm...?”

I flew in front of her and squished her pale cheeks with both hands.

I did not actually squish them, since I had no physical force, but still.

[I am the strongest, and you are invincible.]

“Uh....”

[Repeat it after me. I am the strongest, and—]

“You are invincible?”

[That is—... no, use the first person, idiot.]

“That is so mean~”

Smiling softly, Ishara raised a hand and covered mine where it rested against her cheek.

“Isran is the strongest, and Ishara is invincible!”

[Good.]

As we were fortifying our mindset like that, I saw someone approaching us.

It was Persica, the girl with the curly vermilion hair.

“I, Persica Ortanis, name you as my opponent for this trial.”

At that moment, everyone in the Arena turned their gaze toward us.

The first spar of the fifth trial.

The daughter of a great noble house had thrown down the gauntlet to the dark horse who had appeared like a divine revelation.

“Let’s go, Isran.”

[Yeah.]

We stood facing each other in the center of the Arena.

On one side were Ishara and me.

On the other stood the girl called Persica and the young fairy girl who seemed to be hers.

“You do not seem surprised.”

“Of course not. I was already prepared. There is no reason to be surprised.”

The cold stare of the great noble’s daughter was fierce beyond words, but Ishara answered with complete confidence, without the slightest intimidation.

“Do you know who I am?”

“I do. House Ortanis is famous in more ways than one, after all.”

Even knowing exactly who her opponent was, Ishara showed no fear at all.

Considering the status House Ortanis held in this place, that took remarkable courage.

“Really? Then I suppose there is no need for introductions.”

Persica drew her sword.

“This time, I will win.”

The notice rang out, and Ishara drew her sword as well.

“No. You are going to lose again this time.”

I stepped one pace ahead and took my stance.

In response, Ishara mirrored the exact same posture, and Persica’s eyes widened as she watched.

“Because I am invincible.”