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Chapter 18 - Dealing With Risky Bets

Another day on Aurum Academy.

As my fourth day here, I'm finally getting used to being in this place.

Thanks to my win against Teriris yesterday, I've had a completely peaceful day where no one has come up to me to challenge me to a duel.

But I can't just simply stand idly by and let days pile up, I need to prepare for the big events.

This weekend the first storyline of the game begins.

Kaida finds a couple of bandits that infiltrated Aurum Academy, she'll eventually gain help from a couple of her classmates, recruit them, and finally stop the bandits.

As much as I want to help, I don't want to mess with her development, she's the main character after all and if she can't grow up to be someone that can fight against evil...

[Dark Eclipse] will start an apocalypse that'll destroy the whole world.

But while this group exists before the start of the game, they only start appearing at the end of the early game.

No matter how much I want to do something and change the story to follow a better path, I'm extremely limited on my options of what to do right now.

I can only attend classes normally and train to get better, which is frustrating.

*sigh* I guess all I have left is attend my first ever close-combat applied magic class.

This was a subject you couldn't choose in-game, so I have no idea what to expect from this class.

Arena six, eh?

It's much smaller than all the other arenas. Weirdly enough it wasn't unkept, on the contrary, this place was extremely clean for an arena that no one uses.

I don't even know who's the teacher for this subject yet.

Oh no...

"I always used this class as a way to get some time for myself. When I proposed this class to miss Goldenlaw, I never thought she'd approve of it"

Those black eyes, that long black hair.

"No student would be stupid enough to register into this subject, I thought. My own paradise to relax myself, I believed" he truly had a sad tone when telling me all this, lamenting the fact that I destroyed his personal space.

"But I was wrong..." he points at me while covering his face with his other hand. "You had to be different"

I've already had two long required classes with him today, I'm not ready to be stuck alone with him for the next couple of hours.

"You're approved, you don't need to come to thus class"

Huh?

"I saw yesterday's duel, and I concluded that there's nothing to teach you. You already fight how this class wants to teach students to fight"

No way...

"Wait! What do you mean by that?" I can't let you go easily.

"I meant exactly what I said"

"I'm pretty sure that there's at least something you can teach me right?" I won't let this opportunity go away. "Sure my incantationless allows me to fight better at close-range with magic. But it's not the be all end all of fights"

"You can improve on some aspects, but those are reserved only for second years"

"Then teach me as if I was on my second year"

"Hahaha. Don't make me laugh..." he just laughed "It's impossible for someone like you to understand second year's teachings"

"Give me any task a second year student should know how to do, and in this two hours I have to be here with you, I'll achieve it" I don't think he'll accept my bet.

"But if you fail, I'll be taking away a large sum of your points, enough to make you leave my class" I knew it wouldn't be that easy.

"You've got yourself a bet Crowbell" high risk high reward. If I manage to pass this, my power would be way to high for this part of the game.

He just chuckled and threw me a book.

"It's a magic book with spells a second year is required to learn when starting their classes. Learn at least one spell on all it's forms and I'll accept to train you"

The catch here is... that this book's lowest tier of spells are... tier four.

And Alen could only learn up to tier two spells. This goes way beyond what I can do not only now, but in the future also.

"Having a simple magic affinity should mean that learning to do things of that element should be easier than people with double or more affinities" he was clearly enjoying himself, giving me an impossible task.

But I have no time for that. There should be a way...

All this spells, they're all way beyond what I'm used to, and they're also three tiers above my current self. I haven't even learned tier two spells.

One spell on all it's forms...

I can't back down... think, use your memory.

This is somethig I could try to do, but...

There were different methods to force an improvement at magic that the main character used on herself. But they're extremely deadly, and she only survived due to her special lineage.

I have none of that, I'm just a regular human.

But it's my only method.

First I've gotta find a spell that is useful to me. And out of all the tier four spells, only one spell fits what I want.

[Tailwind]

A spell that buffs the user and their allies' speed. Given my current fighting style, it's perfect for me. It also synergizes with sandstorm as tailwind doesn't disipate the former spell.

The neutral incantation is...

"Winds that blow in all directions, change your course to benefit me and my allies, blessing us with incredible speed that'll change the outcome of this battle"

Right now the neutral form is all I need to know.

"Simply chanting a spell won't work, you also need to do so much more" just ignore him.

Now that I've memorized the chant, it's time to start the hardest part.

Normally, a mage goes up a tier when their mana levels are high enough.

The game explained it as circle. The first time you can control mana, a circle is instinctively formed inside the mage.

That circle represents the first tier, and to move to the second tier, you have to control your mana to artificially create a second one.

To create a circle, a great amount of concentration is required.

But what happens if you have to advance on your tiers but don't have the required mana to move on.

If you didn't train your main character throughout the game. Because she's required to reach tier seven by the end of the game for plot reasons.

The game gave you these risky ways to jump one tier ahead.

My problem is that I need to jump three tiers at once.

But maybe... I don't need to mantain a high tier...

Just like my fakeless incantation, there could be a way to fake my way into casting higher tier spells.

I have an idea...

I ran to where the weapon stands are located, grabbing a random weapon.

I started chanting the strong incantation for the wind infusion spell. Out of all the spells I currently know, this is the one that wastes the most mana.

After casting it four times, I could feel as if I was in the middle of running a marathon.

At the fifth one I'm rendered unable to move and on the sixth one I pass out.

[Wind Infusion]

I casted it for the fith time, falling to my knees.

"What are yo-"

*Splrk*

[Wind Infusion]

I casted wind infusion for the sixth time and the only reason I haven't passed out is because I stabbed myself on my thigh.

A wooden knife shouldn't have been able to stab me, but thanks to strong wing infusion even a plastic sword toy could kill a fully grown man.

Maybe it's because he couldn't believe what I just did, but Crowbell stood still.

With my weapon still stabbing my thigh, I get ready to cast another spell.

"Winds of olden times... that first spread when spirits roamed the land we walk on, bless my weapon with your... own blood and body" being on the edge of passing out is making it hard to recite the incantation.

[Wind Infusion]

When the body is left with no mana of it's own, it starts to use the mana that's on the air.

But I won't be able to reach tier four at this pace.

The razor wind formed around the edge of my blade. I felt as if I was getting cut open by a chainsaw on my thigh.

But it kept me awake long enough to reserve four more wind infusions.

It's funny to me that, even in this situation, I'm trying to keep my fake incantationless a secret. Making sure I chant whispering.

I casted wind infusion four more times.

But I guess my body got slightly used to using the mana around me instead of the one inside of me.

And with this much mana I'm using.

If my theory is correct.

I could create an outer circle instead of an inner circle.

Two... three... four.

"Winds that blow in all directions, change your course to benefit me and my allies, blessing us with incredible speed that'll change the outcome of this battle"

[Windtail]

I could feel a gentle breeze coming from behind my back, as well as I could feel myself losing conciousness.

But I can't... I need to... cast two more....

....

...

__________

This wind current...

Impossible...

Goldenlaw told me he only knew tier one spells. And I could clearly sense the existance of a single circle inside of him.

But this feeling, just for a moment I could feel it, the same energy that only the prodigies on the second year could achieve.

Second years aren't required to cast tier four spells to start their year.

Only the most talented students reach tier four a couple months after studying and training.

And he reached it, even if it was just for a simple second.

I was expecting him to give up and ask me to teach him to reach tier two.

But he simply spent an entire hour thinking, and then he did... whatever that was.

Hm?

I look at my hand, it was bloodied as I tightened my grip so hard, my nails caused it to bleed.

*Ding, Dong, Dang*

The bell...

He's still on the ground, bleeding and uncounsious.

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