Chapter – 11
Gurgle…
While Mikhail was deducing the situation under intense pain.
The dark blue liquid that poured out from his fingertips spread across the ground and devoured the vitality of whatever it touched.
Hiss.
The grass and weeds it touched turned to ash, and the moisture-laden soil dried up and darkened.
In an instant, an acrid smell stung his nose.
Mikhail lowered his gaze that had been fixed forward. His fingertips were continuously spitting out dark blue liquid.
‘…Did I lose control due to the sudden increase in mana capacity? And as a result, the mana in my body is overflowing.’
Mikhail bit his lip while looking at the dark blue mana. He couldn’t let the situation flow as it pleased. He needed to stop the mana leak.
“Kugh…”
Mikhail gritted his teeth and endured the throbbing. He barely pulled together his body wracked with chills.
At the same time, he recalled a setting that could be a clue to the solution. It was the mana control method that had been applied in the game.
[2nd Year Magic Department Professor Yupion]
[Mana is not only a powerful energy, but it also has the property of responding and synchronizing with the caster’s will and mental image. Like a living thing. That’s mana’s greatest characteristic.]
‘Mana responds to and synchronizes with the caster.’
Then the most effective handle for controlling mana right now would be his own will and mental image.
He took one deep breath and calmed his insides. He lowered his eyelids to block out unnecessary visual information.
“…”
In the completely black vision.
Mikhail drew out his body in the black void.
He overlaid a barrier on his fingertips where mana was leaking.
On his drooping body, like repairing a marionette, he overlaid the mental image of connecting strings.
He would stop the flow of mana, he repeated clearly.
Gurgle…
Before long, a change occurred.
When he curled his fingertips, the flowing mana gradually stopped. The pain covering his entire body also gradually faded.
His body, which had felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, gradually lightened, and mana energy began to flow leisurely through his bloodstream.
“Huu… uu…”
…Peace gradually returned.
Mikhail groaned and staggered to his feet. His whole body felt heavy like stones were attached to it.
“Ha…”
He was tired. Tired enough to want to collapse and fall asleep right there.
Mikhail was blinking his drowsy eyes.
“Kruu.”
A pitiful cry stabbed at his ears.
The sky fox siblings stood a little distance away, restlessly looking at Mikhail.
They were holding yellow flowering grass roots in their mouths that they’d brought from somewhere.
‘That’s Moonhalo flower.’
A precious medicinal herb that grows along cliffs and heals wounds and calms seizures.
“Kii…”
The sky foxes looked down at the grass that had turned pitch black and hesitated. They stretched out their front paws to dig through the dry soil, then exchanged hesitant looks.
“…”
But the hesitation was brief.
The sky foxes squeezed their eyes shut and opened them, then rushed over to Mikhail’s side.
A faint smile appeared on Mikhail’s lips at the sight of them tapping his knee.
“What, you’re giving this to me?”
“Kang.”
“If you look around me… it’s a bit strange.”
“Karung.”
The sky foxes shook their heads slightly and gently placed the medicinal herbs under Mikhail’s fingers.
Then they sat down beside him while watching his reaction, drooped their ears, and lowered their black eyes.
Their tails stuck to the ground swayed slowly.
…Just like little kids who didn’t know what to do because they were sorry.
Mikhail watched the sky foxes quietly, then put on a deliberately indifferent expression and said.
“There’s nothing to be sorry about. I just stuck my nose where it didn’t belong.”
“Kuu…”
“I won’t help next time. Security guard duty for two herb roots doesn’t add up. Unless I’m getting about twenty roots.”
Mikhail said this and glanced at the sky foxes.
Their cloud-like tails swayed while slightly raised, but their ears remained drooped.
They couldn’t easily let go of their guilt.
“Tsk.”
Mikhail soon clicked his tongue and crossed his arms.
Honestly, they were so naive. Not only couldn’t they quickly accept a chance to clear their debt, but they were taking on more debt. They were too young, way too young.
“…”
One person and two creatures.
After a short silence flowed through the gap between them, Mikhail let out a low sigh and said.
“If you’re that sorry, just do me one favor.”
At Mikhail’s proposal, the sky foxes’ triangular ears perked up.
“Kang!”
At the fairly confident answer, Mikhail smiled with a relaxed face. He continued slowly.
“The large crows just fled in surprise, they didn’t disappear. As soon as they regain their composure, they’ll attack again. Targeting your nest.”
“…”
“So let’s make a promise.”
Mikhail met the two pairs of night sky-like eyes and opened his mouth again.
With this one statement, this quest would end safely.
“Next time, you’ll protect yourselves on your own.”
About an hour had passed.
ćQuest: [Divine Beasts] Lost Nest Completeć
- Quest Reward: Shop Currency +1
ćNotice: Chain Quest Activated.ć
ćQuest: [Divine Beasts] Conclusionć
- Quest Reward: Shop Currency +2
Mikhail glanced at the quest message that appeared before his eyes and then moved forward.
He’d just left the lakeside after cleaning up the darkened ground as much as possible.
‘It’s a bit concerning that I couldn’t completely remove the traces.’
It couldn’t be helped.
That was the best he could do.
“…”
Mikhail shook his head to dispel the lingering worry.
‘Come to think of it.’
Flash!
ćCharacter Stat Viewingć
ćNotice: Newly applied items exist.ć
- Hidden trait, [Origin Mana: Abyss]
- Mana quality: F
Mikhail narrowed his eyes while looking at the updated content.
What followed was puzzlement. Questions about the game settings related to the mana that had settled in him, the Abyss.
‘I have a hidden trait but my mana quality is F? It should have started at at least C.’
After a low murmur, Mikhail stopped walking and turned his head. To the right stood a dead tree.
‘Yeah… let me at least try checking it out.’
Mikhail reached out toward the tree on the side.
Since it was a world he’d woven, he was familiar with the basic methods of using mana.
Circular magic based on points, lines, and planes.
The basic unit of magic manifestation and spell creation, and a skill that magic department students would have definitely acquired last semester.
‘First, condensation.’
When Mikhail focused his consciousness on his fingertips and recalled the form of the spell, a reaction gradually began.
Fizzle. Fizz fizz.
Dark blue fragments gathered at his fingertips. The slowly condensing fragments soon formed a sphere about the size of a ping-pong ball.
‘Second, discharge.’
Mikhail stared at the middle of the tree trunk and flicked his finger.
The sphere wobbled forward and lodged in its slightly off-target destination.
Thud!
With a bursting sound, the tree trunk dented.
…Just about two or three knuckles deep.
The previous annihilation ability didn’t manifest either.
“Third, dispersion… but.”
Fizzz.
The sphere disappeared without a trace before it could expand its power, as if its role was complete. What followed was only silence.
Mikhail, who’d been watching the scene directly, let out a deflated laugh.
‘From casting speed to accuracy, everything’s terrible. …Not only that.’
At the same time, what vaguely came to mind was the game’s settings related to ordinary mana.
[2nd Year Magic Department Professor Yupion]
[The mana you possess can easily cut down a dead tree even in its just-manifested state. That’s considerable power. So you must always be careful when using magic. Unintended misfires often lead to accidents.]
In other words.
‘The shoddy durability and power that doesn’t even match ordinary mana… It’s exactly as shown in the stat window.’
It was an unpleasant result. Mikhail stared at the tree with dissatisfied eyes, then calmed himself with a low sigh.
Still, there was a comforting fact, wasn’t there?
…The point that it was a hidden trait anyway.
‘If nothing’s different right now, won’t something change after growth?’
Like the saying goes about how even rotten fish is still fish, there’s a basic balance applied to each grade.
So even if the early stage was somewhat lacking, it would improve after training the F-grade quality.
Besides, it even had the epithet “Origin”… whatever it was, it would at least exceed the middle range.
‘Then what else is there? I should think of it as having one more reason to grow diligently… I have no choice but to move busily including events, quests, and academic activities.’
Mikhail turned toward the lakeside he’d just passed.
The lamp tree grove visible in the distance. Along with it, what vaguely came to mind was the sky fox quest.
‘Come to think of it, there aren’t many days left to see those guys.’
With the conversation they’d just had, the sky foxes would have firmed up their resolve, so they wouldn’t avoid fighting anymore.
In the re-confrontation with the large crows, they’d protect their nest, and they wouldn’t refuse to fight to protect it.
That was the conclusion of the story.
‘After that comes the reward.’
Mikhail was lost in thought with a silent gaze.
For a moment, a lamp tree leaf rose through the air.
‘And, really lastly.’
He would part with the sky foxes.
Forever.
“…”
The sunset descended from the distant sky.
Mikhail withdrew his gaze and moved again. He walked along the path leading to the campus with the poker shouldered.
‘Today’s already passed. Tomorrow…’
It would be good to submit an ability reassessment application.
That way, the new ability evaluation results would come out around the start of the semester.
The next day, early afternoon.
The place Mikhail visited early was on the second floor of the main building, the special room in charge of measuring students’ abilities and managing data.
“Uhaha… smack. So you want to get your abilities remeasured? At this point when I’m dying of busyness with the semester starting soon?”
With a desk messily covered in documents in front of him, Mikhail stared at the figure across from him.
A horse-faced man in his late thirties was picking his ear with an irritated expression dripping with annoyance.
“Tsk, honestly, making things difficult.”
Gary Custen.
A foul-tempered staff member who’d secured a low-level position through connections…
“But wait a minute. You look familiar.”
…He’d been on bad terms with the original Mikhail.
“Ah, I got it! Looking at that annoyingly pretty face, I remember! You’re the bastard who poured water on me at the restaurant and left!”
“…”
Gary scrunched up his face as if annoyed, but Mikhail answered without caring.
“The way you kept hitting on someone who said no was quite an eyesore…”
“Ahhh! Yeah, that’s right, I remember! That day! I got rejected spectacularly!”
Gary flailed and ruffled his hair, then glared at Mikhail.
“You… you cheeky brat! Embarrassing me in front of all those people? I’ll never forget this for the rest of my…”
“Shouldn’t you be doing work since it’s office hours?”
Mikhail put down the document on the desk.
It was an ability reassessment application.
“You… honestly such an arrogant bastard.”
Gary grumbled with a clearly dissatisfied face, but picked up the rectangular frame with parchment inserted and moved the quill pen engraved with a spell.
The sound of scribbling continued several times.
“Hmm?”
That’s when it happened. Gary’s eyebrows twitched and he shot Mikhail a triumphant smile.
“Kid… no, Mikhail. Let me tell you something. Ability reassessment can be requested up to three times by anyone. Even great measurement methods have errors.”
“…”
“That’s why there are cases where evaluations were overturned through reassessment, but if you’re in your state, the story’s different.”
Gary flipped the rectangular frame around.
On the parchment inserted in the rectangular frame, only the letters D or F were lined up along with subject names.
The conduct score was also the lowest grade.
Gary, who’d gotten excited, tapped the magic tool and raised his voice.
“With grades and conduct scores like this, reassessment is meaningless! You’ll get the same result a hundred times! You’re unqualified! Forever! Without any change!”
“I get it, so just process the application.”
Mikhail cut off his words indifferently.
Rather, it was Gary who got heated. Gary leaned forward toward Mikhail with a bright red face.
“What? Didn’t you hear me? It’s useless!”
“There’s no rule that failing students can’t reapply.”
“You… you bastard! Ruules? What do you know about procedures to babble on? Are you showing off after picking up a few bits of talk?”
Even in the midst of this, Mikhail remained expressionless.
Gary threw the magic tool forward as if exploding.
“If you’re going to act all high and mighty, you do it all yourself! The application! The confirmation! Everything!”
“Let’s do that.”
“?”
Leaving Gary, who was dumbfounded and rolling his eyes, behind, Mikhail picked up the rectangular frame and quill pen.
It was what he’d wanted. It was more comfortable to do it himself rather than leave it to an unpleasant NPC.
Clack.
Mikhail held the quill pen. Abbreviations used only by staff members gradually began to appear on the parchment.
Characters that ordinary students wouldn’t be able to understand.
“…”
Mikhail moved his eyes slightly to look at Gary.
Gary sitting across from him was slowly showing a crooked smile. His inner thoughts would be something like…
‘Yeah, well, how long will acting confident last? Looks like he picked something up somewhere, but at best it’s at the level of stealing glances. He’ll soon be struggling and clinging to me!’
…Something like that probably.
Click.
Mikhail moved the quill pen with an unhesitating touch.
The staff abbreviations were ultimately characters he’d created.
Flash!
It didn’t even take thirty seconds to write in all the phrases.
As soon as Mikhail put down the quill pen, the parchment inserted in the frame reacted.
It gave off a faint light on the surface, then spat out paper engraved with neat letters through the gap in the rectangular frame.
It was the ability reassessment application.
“…”
The situation was over.
Mikhail sighed, looking at Gary, who was stuttering with a face like he’d been hit in the back of the head.
When he picked up the application and slipped through the doorway, Gary finally seemed to come to his senses and shouted loudly.
“What the hell is it? How did you know? Hey! You there, don’t…!”
Clunk.
Mikhail closed the door.
Mikhail, who’d left the special room, strolled along the corridor leading outside.
A faint smile hung on his lips.
‘Not many days left until expulsion is reversed either.’
The moment Mikhail looked down at the application in his hand, the door to the professor’s office ahead burst open.
Clack.
Along with it appeared a familiar figure.
When Mikhail stopped with a start and looked at the person who appeared, the other party also flinched and froze upon discovering Mikhail.
“…”
Mikhail and Ethan.
An awkward silence lay between the two.
