Isekaied Into An Eroge, Time To Have Fun!-Chapter 120: Recovering
It took me two or three minutes to finally calm down after that, my heart racing in my chest while my body tingled with excess energy that refused to dissipate easily, leaving me in the βflightβ mode for a little longer than I wanted. ππ³π¦ππ€ππ£π―β΄π·π¦π.πππ
Jacklyn was βworseβ than I was, the shorter, thinner woman panting hard and clearly completely out of breath and energy, that small distance taking everything from her and leaving her as a bit of a mess.
However I wasnβt really judging herder that since she had experienced something dreadful, and on top of that she was also experiencing a bit of βwhiplashβ from the surge of fear turning into relief now that she was safe.
Lounging at that desk and just trying to get myself back to normal, I glanced over at her periodically and made sure she was doing βalrightβ after that, since the last thing I wanted was for her to have a panic attack.
Her notebook was still in her hands - thankfully - and it seemed like as good a place as any to attempt to get her to recover fully, so I took another few moments to regulate my breathing before gesturing at it and asking if we had missed anything before we had been interrupted.
For a few seconds she just stared at me in confusion before understanding dawned in her eyes, the reserved Dogkin flipping it open and going over what she had written down before that Wolfkin had appeared.
"W-We should... be fine... I think, anyways..?"
The quiet, strained voice that answered my question made me feel a little more anger towards that Wolfkin since she was still so shaken up, yet I wasnβt going to even begin to think that I could take that Wolfkin on, let alone the three of them...
"So all we need to do is go over everything before class starts and then present the information? It wasnβt as... complete as I was hoping, but it is definitely serviceable."
Jacklyn nodded slowly as she reviewed her own work a few more times, only to blink and watch me as I stood up, confusion taking her over again as I walked over to Professor Hollishire; the olive skinned beauty didnβt look up when I stood at the edge of her desk, but the small wave she gave was all I needed to start speaking.
"Thank you for taking us in, Professor, and I donβt want to seem... like I am trying to take advantage of you, but... Professor Maryanne said you had a Grading Sphere that we might be able to borrow for an assignment?"
The older woman hummed softly to herself and continued to write down something on the paper in front of her, not looking at me and instead going over whatever it was before her; after a few moments she glanced up and stared at me, just keeping her eyes on me as she judged me quietly.
"You wouldnβt be the first to attempt to βtake advantage of meβ, Natalie, so I am very aware that this is anything but that. As for the Grading Sphere, it is a very priceless thing to me, so do treat it carefully. In fact, if you can do your assignment here I can give it to you, but otherwise I am afraid I will have to decline."
"Oh, we can do it here! All we were trying to use it for was to measure our mana potency before and after meditation to see if we can βrecordβ the differences and prove that there is an improvement."
She raised a brow at that before reaching for a drawer, retrieving a large crystalline ball that was completely smooth and flawless, its silvery surface polished to a mirror finish; carefully extending it to me, the Professor made sure I had both hands on it before she gave it away completely, and I made sure to handle it with the utmost care as I walked it back to my desk.
Sitting it down carefully and keeping a hand on it at all times, I just stared at it for a moment as I marveled at having one of these again, the nifty tool I had come to love so much now resting in my hands.
It was such a stereotypical magic tool yet it was always so cool whenever I saw it anywhere; putting your hands on the magic ball and putting a little bit of mana inside to see how strong you were always made for some awesome scenes~!
Even more so when the ball cracked or shattered completely because the character was too strong, or when it emitted the lowest possible strength to lure everyone else into a false sense of security...
Oh that was always so cool to see, and now I was here, holding it myself and about to use it... though I doubt I was going to have any amazing results like those main characters; I mean, I only had a raw MAG stat of 7, which wasnβt even that high...
"I assume you are aware of the Spectrum of Mana, correct? Starting from red and working all the way over to violet, following the colors found in a rainbow?"
"Anything red is considered βweakβ or paltry, while violet it rarely seen anywhere in the world naturally and any mortal with a violet grade is typically a βmonsterβ."
Professor Hollishire nodded, idly adding "I myself am blue grade, almost indigo grade. Most students arrive at the Academy as orange grade, with very few being yellow or even green. If you were curious, practically all Professors here are blue grade, however we do have a handful of indigo Professors and even a violet grade Professor." before returning to her work.
All of the colors didnβt sound like much, but if I was operating beneath the framework of the game that would place Professor Hollishire at the upper 400βs in terms of level, and the MAG stat would be around 800...
So only a little over 100 times more βpowerfulβ than me, no big deal...
Especially not when you have to consider that 1 - 100 is the same power delta as 100 - 150, and that 150 - 200 is twice as large of a gap as 1 - 100... in other words it is all very confusing and an extremely complicated way of saying that Professor Hollishire could atomize me if she so pleased.
That was horrifying to think about, but it was also the sort of motivation I needed to get stronger because the idea of being atomized was definitely not a fun thing to think about, least of all when Professor Hollishire was just a sweet, beautiful older lady who wouldnβt hurt a fly unless she needed to...
With that understanding looming over me, I returned my gaze back to the Grading Sphere and took a deep breath, wondering just where I was going to fall and hoping that somehow I wouldnβt be red...
Though I was confident that I was red grade right now since I had just activated my Core merely a few days ago, but until the Grading Sphere confirmed that I wasnβt willing to write it off just yet; besides I was also rather curious about the shy Dogkin beside me, though I was going to do the test first just because I wanted to see the result as soon as possible.
Placing my other hand on the Grading Sphere and slowly pushing my mana inside, I watched as the silvery surface began to darken only to immediately begin radiating a red glow that immediately made me smile wryly.
When that glow lightened up into a pretty orange I was rather shocked, though it didnβt continue filtering through the remaining colors; this was already really good though, and it sort of made me question if it was defective since there was surely no way it was meant to be like this, right..?
"Orange, albeit barely. If I am recalling this correctly, you didnβt have access to mana before you arrived here... Thatβs rather peculiar to already be orange grade, but this is a measure of both potency and potential, so it makes some sense."
"But potential shouldnβt have too much of an emphasis on this, right..? Is there a chance that-"
"It is wrong? To a degree, yes, but not as much as you think. Grading Spheres are old tools, most certainly, and Arcane Spheres are simply superior to them, but for centuries and centuries these magical balls have helped us understand how strong someone was and how much potential they have.
When someone began their journey through the Arcane Arts they were usually tested with a Grading Sphere, and the range from red to yellow was readily apparent. Those same beginners were graded again and again and it followed a pretty linear pattern, one that seems to make sense.
Anyone with low or medium red grade potential seemed to be the average, and they plateaued at green grade if they were lucky. Those at orange reached blue and sometimes indigo, and anyone who started at yellow was guaranteed indigo so long as they put in a little work."
Professor Hollishire was staring at the Grading Sphere with a small smile, but after a moment of reminiscing she glanced up at me and just added "Congratulations, Natalie. You have some rather decent potential for a Human raised somewhere to far from what most consider βcivilizationβ."
Her voice was somewhat teasing and light, so I just smiled back at her and took it as a compliment rather than an insult before turning towards Jacklyn and gesturing for her to do the same, after I recorded and memorized what the color looked like.
