[236] 4. Battle Simulation (6)
How could this be? Is scent magic useless in actual combat?
Pandora shook her head.
Scent mages weren't many, but once certified they got favorable treatment in the mage community. Smells are invisible, affect everyone in an area, and have uniquely distinctive effects.
But to students who didn't know scent magic's true value, it could only feel like it wasn't there at all.
Pandora scanned the other competitors.
Boil was training by the book like a model student, and Shirone's group hunted however they pleased, like the troublemakers they were.
The strange one was Dante's group.
Even though No. 2000 had been opened, they were sitting outside watching the others hunt.
"Hmph. What's this? Different league or something? How arrogant."
Dante took in Pandora's glare without much interest, then nodded toward Closer and Sabina sitting behind him.
"Hey, that girl's staring at us."
"Kekeke, looks like her guts are burning. Her taste is okay, but her skill's pathetic. Didn't they teach her how to fight with scent?"
"Bet she was told to learn her major in senior year. Whatever—annoying. That country-bumpkin's glaring at us. Wanna go crush her?"
Closer turned to Dante and asked, "Think it's okay, Dante? Want us to give a little demonstration?"
"Go ahead. Teach her what No. 2000 really is."
Only then did Closer and Sabina strap on their bracelets. The simulated landscape became a wide grassland. When they stepped in, students who'd taken positions stopped training and turned.
They'd heard the stories in magazines, but it was the first time they'd seen Dante's group's skill in person.
Sabina lifted her chin arrogantly. "You don't do No. 2000 like that. If you want real combat practice, you need to be at least this good. Sade, set Package 17."
Sade, who'd been killing time in the corner, yawned and sent the data to the core.
Package 17 promised to be noisy. But with a low sync rate, it shouldn't be dangerous.
Thunder rolled, and dozens of monsters appeared across land, sea, and air.
Golems rose from the earth; ulks and skeletons charged down the hills. The corpse-eating beast Nachal lunged with its spear-like beak in a physical attack.
The battlefield-like scene stole the students' breath. The overwhelming numbers left no time even for strategy.
"Hoho, this is how it should feel."
Sabina arched and cast. A cold wind swirled around her, and she vanished from sight.
Sade, watching with half-closed eyes, sharpened his gaze. "Huh? That's Haste."
An air-major spell that uses wind to accelerate movement.
The ulks chasing Sabina clawed at the air, but she had already slipped behind them and scattered Wind Cutters.
Meanwhile, a golem—apparently unaware Sabina had moved—lumbered toward the visible Closer.
"Heh heh, we'll show you why we're the stars."
The golem's fist came down on Closer's crown. Made of earth but weighing nearly a ton, it was a force a physically weak mage couldn't withstand. Still, the strike was judged blocked.
"Earthrise? That's a major-course spell, too, isn't it?"
A spell that draws up the earth's power to boost durability. The drawback is the caster can't move, but its defensive strength is unmatched by other elements.
"So that's it. Royal academy stars. Their secret is passive skills?"
If active spells focus on phenomena, passive spells focus on the concepts of an attribute.
Wind is speed; earth is solidity. From those come Haste and Earthrise.
Because their effects persist after casting, they can be used alongside active spells.
A typical mage passive is Teleportation.
It looks like an active skill, but in reality it only converts the mage into a photonic state.
How to move while in light form is purely a matter of sensory control. That's why when Shirone learned Teleportation he spent a month rolling on the ground.
"Hohoho! Slow! Slow!"
"Kekeke! These guys are too weak!"
Whenever Sabina landed a killing blow, Closer smashed foes with earth power. The cycle repeated.
In an instant the number of monsters visibly dropped.
They'd learned graduation-year spells, so clearing a high-level package was quick work.
Sade pressed his forehead and shook his head. "Why on earth passive skills? Is that how the royal academy does things?"
Shiina stepped closer. "It's probably the capital's academic culture valuing individuality."
"Individuality's fine, but what about diversity? You need to try many magics to find aptitude. Teleportation alone is enough to practice passive skills—what's the rush?"
"Efficient, actually. Active skills can't cast two different magics at once. Except Iruki's Double Spirit Zone, that is. Look at Sabina—she casts Haste and then sprays Wind Cutters. Her results are far superior to other students. Canis and Arin learned at Arcane and handle passive skills, too."
"But Shiina-sensei, at our school—"
"Don't misunderstand. I'm not endorsing Bashka's method. I just want to understand why students nationwide go crazy for them."
Shiina pushed up her glasses and pointed toward the corner where No. 2000 was.
"Anyway… there are students who can produce the same results with active skills."
Sade turned to Shirone's group. They were facing Package 7, a golem squad.
Lightning Bolt, Atomic Bomb, and Photon Cannon struck; active skills caused some chaotic clashes, but they were coordinating impressively.
What pleased him most was that they didn't take it too seriously.
Seeing them panting and yet cracking jokes made him question whether "practical" and "school" were really a contradictory pair.
"Ugh, I'm tired. Let's stop."
No sooner had Nade spoken than a half-shattered golem's corpse sank into the earth and began to rise.
Etella, who'd opened Package 7 and stepped aside, still hadn't returned.
Of course Etella was an excellent teacher. But she was hopeless with machines.
Who turns on a reset function and walks off?
"Unlock the bracelets. There's no other way. Etella-sensei, that's too much."
"Wait a moment. I just thought of something I want to try."
At Shirone's words, Nade and Iruki gave him space. They were curious how Shirone would handle a whole package alone—either scorch it with lasers or lay down a Photon Cannon barrage, they expected.
They were wrong.
When Shirone formed a sphere of light, golden chains poured out like streams.
It was the Shining Chain he had learned in Heaven.
At the sight of this unheard-of magic, the students' gazes locked on Shirone.
Even Dante couldn't help but be drawn in.
As a fellow light mage, it was shocking. The photonic attribute is hard enough to combine; shaping it is considered impossible.
'So he's got one real trick.'
As noise swelled around No. 2000, Etella came running back in a fluster.
Nade folded his arms and glared. "Sensei…"
"Oh my, sorry. Have you been waiting long? Want me to run a different package?"
Etella fumbled with the master bracelet, embarrassed.
Shirone felt a bit deflated at the sight, but he couldn't hate someone he respected who simply couldn't handle machines.
"Just turn it off, please."
Even the sound of golems rising made him feel sick.
Exhausted, Shirone's group slumped and left No. 2000.
Dante waited at the exit. "Fractal, right?"
Shirone thought a moment, then nodded. "Right. Complex shapes are impossible with photonic sculpting."
"I see. Good method. Impressive."
"Ha ha, thanks."
"But you're wrong. Your method has a serious flaw."
Nade's face went sour.
Until now Shirone had cleared countless obstacles. Given abilities honed by real combat, it seemed unlikely they'd have a flaw.
"I'll give you the Unlocker's battery, but the problem is you have no alternatives. You don't seem to have learned passive skills yet, so the balance is off."
Iruki objected. "You've got attack magic, defensive magic, damage-over-time, and binding. What balance is missing?"
"If you look only at tendencies, you might think that. But they're all expensive spells. I don't know how much combat experience you have, but you couldn't fight for an hour like that. Am I wrong?"
Shirone blinked. He'd never been in a battle that lasted more than an hour.
Iruki wasn't unaware of that either, but he thought it was merely a difference in tendency.
Carnivores can't run as long as herbivores not because they're weak. If you can unleash great power in a short time, endurance is secondary.
"So what? Offense beats defense. It's not five or ten minutes—we're talking an hour. Most magic fights end within that."
"You could think that, sure… but well, you can't undo what's done. I'm just giving my opinion. For the record, the longest I ever fought was ten hours and twenty-seven minutes."
For Shirone, basically a sprinter, that was shocking.
Ten hours and twenty-seven minutes of bloodshed—an unknown realm he'd never experienced.
"So don't rush. The world of magic isn't only short-distance races."
Leaving that cryptic line, Dante walked away.
@
Image Zone class was leisurely.
A month ago it'd been a proving ground to gauge the advanced class, but hitting targets was far more boring than hunting monsters.
Class Four students weren't as eager to raise scores as before.
Unable to ignore it, Etella gathered them and scolded, "If you don't train the four-way method, you won't improve. Sharpen your basics and your hunting will get better."
"Isn't it fine? Maybe they've adapted to the royal academy's advanced education."
"Dante is now officially an Alpheas School of Magic student. Refrain from remarks that provoke regional resentment."
Etella's unusually sharp words had little effect.
The students still looked bored and waited impatiently for No. 2000 lessons to return.
But Shirone was different. Lately what fired him up wasn't No. 2000 but lifting.
He'd realized the secret to shortening Ataraxia's duration might be hidden in lifting.