36. Magic Survival (3)
“Hmm……”
Right after using the Scanning Field, I hid myself for a moment in the corner of a ruined building and checked the map.
There was one participant displayed.
For some reason, even though they had shown up on the Scanning Field, they were not moving and were simply standing still…… Judging by that, they had probably been attacked by Berunkal.
[If you go to the restroom on the 7th floor of the ruined building in Sellerdan Village Ruins to the northeast, you can obtain the ‘Scanning Field’ artifact.]
[Use it toward the southwestern ridge as quickly as possible.]
[If your timing is right, you may be able to prevent one victim.]
This really was the kind of guide only seasoned veterans could have written.
They had even written a strategy post after memorizing exactly where and when Berunkal would commit his first kill.
Anyway, the fact that the location was showing up on the map meant that, at the very least, they were still alive.
After that, if other participants approached him and deliberately exhausted his Life Points, he would be automatically eliminated and returned outside.
Also, the person who had witnessed that incident would surely realize that someone with suspicious power existed in this field.
A little later, the mark on the map vanished, and the survivor count changed.
[99/100]
Someone had probably found the victim and processed the elimination properly.
For now, that was one worry off my mind.
“Phew……”
Leaning against the pillar of a building that had nearly collapsed, I was about to put the used Scanning Field back into my survival backpack when my Sixth Sense picked up a presence.
The location was right outside the building’s exterior wall. Someone was climbing the building as they approached.
‘Well, maybe it would’ve been stranger if I hadn’t been found.’
I had rushed over to quickly farm the Scanning Field, so I had left clear traces behind, including footprints.
On top of that, the other participants hiding nearby must have had my location exposed too.
The center was still a long way off, but now that it had come to this, combat was inevitable.
I took out the weapon I had picked up along with the Scanning Field from the backpack.
[Lv.1 Wooden Club]
It looked shabby, but inside Magic Survival, it was actually a fairly destructive weapon.
It existed as a backup weapon for emergencies, something you could pull out and swing when things got dicey, so aside from a few oddballs, nobody ever bothered carrying one around.
…The fact that I had no choice but to count as one of those few oddballs was honestly pretty depressing.
Anyway, from here on out, I’d have to make a pretty loud commotion.
As I slowly crept toward the wide-open window, the presence became even clearer.
The enemy outside the window had apparently trained in mana control to a high level, because even while clinging to the building’s outer wall, there was almost no flow of mana to be felt.
Probably a knight-type.
Still, that wasn’t a problem.
If anything, I was more confident in close combat.
[Blink]
“…Huh!”
I used Blink to slip out through the window and hover in midair, and bewilderment spread across the face of the boy clinging to the wall.
It looked like he was immediately pulling out a wand to prepare a spell, but I already knew that while stuck to a wall like that, his casting would be slow.
[Blink]
I moved once more, closing the distance, then swung the wooden club in a wide arc.
Thwack!!
“Gaaah!”
It seemed he had hastily thrown up a shield, but he couldn’t withstand the impact and fell straight to the ground.
If we had fought normally on flat terrain, I might have had a harder time, but trying to force himself onto the wall for an ambush had been that boy’s mistake.
Thud…!
I sprinted down the wall toward the boy who had crashed to the ground and finished him off with another swing of the wooden club.
[1 KILL!]
A cheerful kill chime announcing the enemy’s elimination rang in my ears.
“Phew.”
I had taken care of the enemy right in front of me, but this was only the beginning.
From here on out, I was planning to attack every enemy that came into my sight.
‘It’d be nice if I could at least avoid dying a dog’s death…….’
Praying that I wouldn’t run into an enemy strong enough to be considered a championship-level candidate, I headed toward the central city district.
Magic Survival was also the event the spectators looked forward to the most.
A gathering of the most talented boys and girls, all fighting to determine the final survivor.
Strategy, tactics, magic, luck, terrain, weather—only after all of those elements were woven together would the final survivor finally emerge.
Also, since “which school is superior” was the sort of topic mages used as drinking-table conversation every single day, Magic Survival—where over thirty prestigious schools gathered all at once to wage a survival game—had also become a kind of contest of pride.
It had even become common for kings to personally attend and take the finest VIP seats just to see how excellent the students of their own nations were, so halting Magic Survival so easily was impossible.
“…If we stop it right now, a huge controversy will break out.”
That was Eltman Eltwin’s opinion.
“Recent interschool competitions are no longer at a level where they can be treated as simple school festivals. You know that too, Flame.”
“I know that, but……”
At the principal’s office in the First Main Tower, Flame lowered her head deeply and bit her lip.
Eltman, wearing a regretful expression, leafed through a file binder.
“I was already in the middle of trying to root out the rat. There’s no doubt that a dark mage who had the qualifications to access the heart of the Stella Dome infiltrated…… but with our current technology, it’s simply impossible to find them.”
Eltman Eltwin was not only a 9-Class mage, but one of the ten people in the world called Grand Sages.
And Flame knew better than anyone how badly his pride must be wounded right now. Even in the original romance-fantasy work, how much had Eltman bled from the nose while trying to detect the mana of dark mages?
He must have been feeling deeply troubled even now.
“……Of course, I have no intention of doing nothing. We need to take action.”
Even if they cast the magic to pull the students out of the isolated space and back into reality this very moment, it would still take quite a while. By then, a considerable number of casualties would already have occurred.
If that was the case, then wouldn’t it be better instead to secretly help one of the survival participants and remove the dark mage separately?
“But…… we don’t even know which one of them is the dark mage. And even if we were going to help someone…… who would we help……”
“Baek Yuseol. I intend to help that child.”
“Wh… what?”
Flame’s eyes widened in surprise. She had never expected that name to come up.
“Well, the cadets from the other schools are elites too, of course. They probably have quite a bit of real combat experience as well. But I trust my school’s student.”
There were many participants even among Stella’s second- and third-years.
But Eltman deliberately singled out first-year Baek Yuseol and said that he trusted him the most.
“That child is…… special, as you all know, isn’t he?”
As he said that, Eltman looked at Anella, who was hiding behind Flame and awkwardly twisting her fingers together.
‘An exchange student……?’
His gaze was subtly suspicious, but even after using a mana scan, there was nothing he could discern.
The only thing he had been able to tell was that her mana quantity was lower than that of ordinary students.
Then again, if she were just an ordinary student from outside Stella, that amount of mana might have been perfectly average.
“You were the one who found out about this?”
“Y-Yes……”
Eltman had asked in a friendly tone, almost like he was talking to someone his own age, but Anella felt as if her throat had closed up and she might die.
There was probably no dark mage in the world who could remain perfectly fine with Eltman—the infamous mad dark-mage slaughterer—standing right in front of them.
“Hmm…… How did you find out?”
“Th-That is……”
“Ah, I’m not interrogating you. But since this is a rather serious matter, I’d like to know the source of the information. Don’t feel too pressured.”
Anella fidgeted with her fingers, then spoke carefully.
“……I overheard a conversation.”
“You overheard one?”
“Yes……. Um, I got into the Stella Dome staff area with the help of student Baek Yuseol, but then I got lost…….”
That was actually a fairly plausible explanation.
It was true that she had been helped by Baek Yuseol, and the Stella Dome’s staff area really was as complicated as a maze.
“Hmm, I see. I suppose I really do need to overhaul the Stella Dome’s structure on a large scale once.”
“Eep.”
Just one careless thing she said, and now the Stella Dome was apparently going to be overhauled.
She wondered if she had said something she shouldn’t have and was about to correct herself, but Eltman quickly moved on.
“Then whose conversation did you overhear?”
Gulp.
Anella’s throat bobbed sharply.
The moment had come.
If she said here that she hadn’t seen the face, that she didn’t know, she might be able to save one of her own kind this once.
But the moment she exposed his identity to Eltman here—
‘I…… would be betraying my own kind.’
One of the matters most strictly taboo even among dark mages.
‘Never betray your own kind.’
Dark mages already had no choice but to live hidden in the shadows of the world.
If they bit and tore at each other, they could never accomplish any great undertaking—that was the reason, and so in the recent past, the Dark Magic King, the Black Magic Cult Leader, and the Black Magic Union Chairman had gathered and established one great rule.
It remained as a kind of binding dictum, becoming one principle that all dark mages carried in their hearts……
‘…I’ve decided to give up being a dark mage.’
With her own will, Anella overcame that binding dictum and was able to speak the name aloud.
“Kabaren. He said his name was Kabaren.”
Before long, the match was heading into its middle phase.
—As expected, most of the players have chosen concealment. Indeed, their ability to secure positions early, observe their enemies, and keep them in check is remarkable!
The announcer was doing his best to dress it up, but in truth, this was the most boring part of the match.
The match area was still quite large, so encounters between players were rare, and even when they did run into each other, most of the time they only exchanged a few probing attacks before both sides went their separate ways.
It was only in the latter half of the match, when the time finally came that they truly could not survive unless they killed each other, that it started to become interesting again, so this was also the part where it was perfectly fine to go take a bathroom break.
However, this year’s match was somehow different.
Because of one particular player, it was impossible to relax even for a moment.
—Ahhh, Stella’s cadet Baek Yuseol! The moment he spots another enemy, he rushes in once again! The superior mobility provided by his unique Blink magic! Dazzling, artistic control that freely traverses three-dimensional space!
In the center of the stadium stood a giant hologram.
Most of the stages were obscured in shadow and could not be seen, but players in places receiving the light of the artificial sun were visible to the spectators.
And Baek Yuseol fought most of his battles in places drenched in sunlight.
—KABOOOM! Bam-bam-bam!
Flames scattered, and chunks of ice rained down.
Baek Yuseol tried to slip through them with repeated Blinks to find an opening, but the players who had sensed the danger he posed after his frequent kills had already prepared themselves in advance for Blink.
—Crack-crack-crack!!
The instant Baek Yuseol arrived, ice spikes erupted from all directions!
But he smoothly slid across the ground, then shot up into the sky and lightly escaped the field.
“He fights well.”
At Hong Biyeon’s offhand remark—
“Right? That’s what I’ve been saying.”
“Exactly, exactly.”
“Her Highness really does have an eye for people.”
The followers at either side of her chimed in with meaningless agreement.
At this point, it felt like even if someone replaced them with recording devices, they would probably just keep repeating the same lines, but because Hong Biyeon was the type who liked that sort of flattery, she didn’t particularly stop them.
—Ahhh, player Baek Yuseol! He has taken another enemy’s head again! Or perhaps, in this case, we should say he smashed it in! That makes eight kills already!
Apparently, against children like these, there was no need for him to even go looking for a sword to use.
Baek Yuseol went around carrying that low-level artifact wooden club he had picked up somewhere and knocked down his enemies one after another.
And that wasn’t all.
He also used the various artifacts that appeared in the stage in extremely novel ways, surprising people by applying them in directions no one had ever imagined.
—Ohhh, to think he’d use the ‘Sky Walking’ artifact like that……. He walked through empty air as though there were terrain beneath his feet and tricked his enemy into falling to their death!
—He combined the ‘Throwing Hook’ with a ‘Target Orb’ and launched his own body far forward! Incredible adaptability. I never would have imagined that myself!
Magic Survival’s orthodox strategy was to quietly endure and survive, but many people cheered for Baek Yuseol’s flashy performance.
‘Does he not even intend to hide……?’
In the past, Baek Yuseol would at least have held back a little while fighting.
But for some reason, he was desperately taking down enemies one after another.
With his mental age, this sort of school competition between children should have looked nothing more than cute and laughable to him—so why was he trying so hard?
‘Hm?’
Then, on the opposite side in the spectator stands across from her, she spotted a familiar face.
It was Flame, hurrying off somewhere with some girl in tow, and her expression looked far from ordinary.
Hong Biyeon frowned, wondering if something had happened again—
and then an incident occurred in the arena.
—Ah! What is this! Three players have begun attacking Baek Yuseol at the same time!
“What?”
Hong Biyeon quickly turned her head back toward the stadium, and sure enough, three boys from all directions were deliberately closing in on Baek Yuseol.
—Could it be that they’ve formed a temporary alliance in order to defeat a powerful opponent?
That was how the announcer tried to package it, but Hong Biyeon thought otherwise.
‘A temporary alliance, my foot…….’
Those three faces were familiar.
They were all members of Crown Prince Jeremy’s faction.
And three such people just happened to encounter each other at that location and join in attacking Baek Yuseol?
Ridiculous.
They had clearly gathered with a firm intention—to eliminate Baek Yuseol.
‘Even so, he won’t lose to opponents on the level of students.’
Hong Biyeon assumed that he would put on some kind of performance and escape on his own anyway, so she soon lost interest and rose to go look for Flame.
—Ah! This is unfortunate. Player Baek Yuseol appears unable to withstand the combined assault of the three players. Is this where his run will come to an end?
The ground flipped over, and spells fired from all directions.
As if he truly could not handle them at all, Baek Yuseol was doing nothing but running away.
“What a shame.”
“That guy was fighting pretty well too.”
“Is he getting eliminated here……?”
Regretful sighs flowed from all over the place, but Hong Biyeon snorted.
‘Eliminated? As if.’
She even thought Baek Yuseol was being malicious.
He probably knew that if he staged an extreme situation there and then escaped, the crowd’s reaction would be even better, and that was why he was doing this on purpose.
— Read only on MugenCodex —
……However.
Hong Biyeon would never know.
—Damn it! You lunatics! Teaming is a ban-worthy offense! Admin! Admin, what the hell are you doing—!!
That Baek Yuseol was, at this very moment, really running for his life.
