The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 25: The Entrance Ceremony (3)

This is so fucked.

As for what exactly was fucked.... Well, I wasn’t sure of it myself.

“Krrrrrrrr.......”

Three Drakes randomly showed up and were blocking the way to school.

They didn’t seem to be the Iron Drakes that would occasionally be seen in the back mountain. With the way they were gold-plated, there was a good chance that they were some kind of mutation. Should I be calling these guys Gold Drakes?

Anyway, their shininess was reminiscent of those mecha dinosaurs I’d see in some sci-fi movies. An armored dinosaur made with quantum mechanics, that’s the stuff of fantasies....

“Oh my goodness, what is that...?”

“B-beasts! Where did they come from?!”

“Miss, it’s dangerous! Run away, quick!!”

Didn’t seem like a dream.

After I told the civilians to maintain a safe distance, I stood in the middle of the street. I heard voices telling me to run away from afar. They quieted once I pulled out my staff.

There wasn’t enough tension for this to be considered an unprecedented situation. These beasts were blocking the way to the Academy but that was it. They weren’t taking an offensive stance or anything.

If anything, they were wagging their tails while watching me. Their movements didn’t indicate that they were going to charge. Because I was well-versed with the patterns of Drakes from catching some in the back mountain, I knew from experience that they had no intentions of attacking.

[Wow, there are three of these mutant variants. These kinds don’t occur naturally.]

“So what. Does the fact that they’re in a place like this seem normal to you?”

The hardcover took offense to my rebuking and flapped.

[When did I say it was normal? I mean that since these ones don’t occur naturally, they have a master!]

So simply put, some bastard created them.

If that was true, then it somewhat made sense why these guys from the cretaceous period were just standing here without attacking. These sorts tended to behave the way they looked if they didn’t have any reins.

[There are three ways to handle this kind of situation. The first is to take down the beasts and get rid of them, the second is to find the transmutation circle that built them and destroy it. The third is.......]

“I get it. Go after the master directly and kick their ass.”

I knew that the last method would be difficult. How was I supposed to catch something when I didn’t know who it was or where they lived?

Since they managed mid-level Drakes, the controller was at least a high-level or above. And quite an intelligent one at that.

[Seeing where the Drakes came from, it must have happened at the Academy.]

“Does seem like it.”

It was unrealistic to go after the master. The best way probably was to find the construction circle that the caster had built and destroy it as soon as possible.

This, too, was hard. There were at least hundreds of different construction circles. Depending on its formation, the way to dismantle it also varied.

Of course, since the construction circle would be made of mana.......

[Ultimate Innate Magic ─ Element Operation]

“So it’s going to be a matter of where I stick this.”

Without finding the root of the transmutation circle, the spell couldn’t be destroyed. If that couldn’t be located, guys like these were going to spill out endlessly.

As I was thinking, two more rose up out of the ground. The veins of the ground1 were definitely the source.

“Then all I can do is symptomatic treatment, basically.”

Since I couldn’t immediately locate the source, I needed to take down whatever was popping out. That was all I could do.

I yelled at the people who were just standing there watching to evacuate far away then bit a stick of mana grass.

At least, I tried to.

[Wait, please wait a moment.]

“Now what.”

[They seem to have something to say.]

Thump─.

One of them stamped their feet at me then came this way a step at a time.

“Does that look like they want to talk? They’re about to attack, it feels like.”

[If that was the case, then they would’ve already wrecked everything on their way here.]

This chapter is updat𝓮d by freēnovelkiss.com.

The kindling book had a point. That was the problem.

These Drakes could run wild at any time if the one behind them gave the command. The thought of them going on a rampage in the middle of the capital made my head spin.

Thump─. Thump─. Thump─.

They were getting closer. At a leisurely pace, like some innocent kid who was approaching a dragonfly from behind to catch it. But their stature was far from a child’s. With every step the Drakes took, the road sank.

I could feel an instinctive contraction. The sensation of lungs shriveling up and not inflating again.

From my experience of having faced many Drakes, I realized that the fear wasn’t due to the approaching theropods because their patterns were simple enough to predict.

I wasn’t afraid of the dinosaurs.

Not the dinosaurs, but someone beyond them.

The ominous feeling wasn’t wrong.

<Hello. Can you hear me?>

The Drake at the front stuck out its head toward me. I pulled out a backup scroll from my hipsack and prepared to fire at any moment.

When I looked closely, there were a few small, narrow holes in the Drake’s temporomandibular joint (TMJ) area. The unidentified voice came from here.

<Sorry, it took me a while to find you. I thought you’d be attending the ceremony and playing with your friends so I wreaked a bit of a havoc.>

The voice was distorted so it was hard to tell their gender. But even with the distortion, there was nothing playful about it.

<Anyway, you seem pretty lucky. How did you think to take the exam to get in there? That’s why I envy you. I could never do something like that.>

“What are you talking about...?”

<I didn’t really come for small talk. Just wanted to say hi.>

“To say hi...?”

A chill suddenly crawled down my back. Perhaps because I had an idea of what was going to be said next.

<Yeah. The Empire folk may not know this but half the capital is in our hands. We don’t even need to do anything.>

“What.......”

<But you know, the lower ranks keep bitching about it being too boring. Resurrecting the Demon King isn’t some game for brats so I don’t know why they keep demanding entertainment.>

I didn’t need to use sixth sense or anything to know. It’d be idiotic to not deduce it from the conversation.

This guy was─.

<Anyway, you realize, too, right? That this nation is an utter shitfest, Imperial court or no.>

This guy was.......

<Everything’s according to plan.>

Calamity, and more.

<Alright, then that should be it.>

As soon as I heard that, I reflexively took a step back.

<Then I wish you a happy time at the Academy. Ah, for reference, the core part of the construction circle is inscribed into the fountain at the school’s central square. You can disarm it immediately or just treat it as a hunting ground until the end of the wave if you want to farm some mana stones.>

My hunch was right.

“Kwoooohhh─!!”

The speaker disconnected with a ‘click’, and it was followed by the beasts collectively losing all reason. It meant that the figure gave up their control and released them completely.

[What a nasty get-to-know-you gift.]

“That’s what I’m saying.”

[This was why Goddess upgraded me. From now on, you can use me as a medium to discharge magic instead of carrying around scrolls.]

“What?”

[Whether it’s Fire Realm, Water Realm, as long as you’ve learned it, then it can be used to an extent. The circuits are already stored within me.]

It was hard to believe what the hardcover was saying from how shocking it was. That was essentially ignoring the penalty of the Golden-Eyed species.

[However, it’s only up to three times per day.]

Fuck, of course it was. It wasn’t for unlimited use.

[I can only store up to 100 sieverts worth of elements per day. Think of it as spending 30 sieverts every time you use a spell. And this is obvious but higher level magic require even more mana than that.]

To simplify things, let’s say that this was a world inside a VR game. You have quests, and in order to beat those quests, the developers drop handy items at the appropriate time at the right place, no?

If the Goddess was considered as a GM of this Ahrens Continent, then this hardcover could be seen as a gift to adjust the game’s difficulty level at the appropriate time. Though it was a bit of a problem that the name of the game was called ‘life’.

How was it not possible to save or load? This was why users who quit never came back.

Either way, it seemed unavoidable that the level of difficulty would rise because of this new ability.

“Still, you’re saying that I can stash three of them to use without mana grass.”

Then it was decided what I would use.

[Ultimate Innate Magic ─ Element Operation]

[Ah, you can only use that once. It’s an Ultimate.]

That was stupidly strict.

Right now, the situation was urgent. Even as I thought this, several seconds had already passed.

The first thing those monsters did once they were unleashed wasn’t attacking me but smashing the surrounding buildings. It seemed that they were demolishing the buildings due to their proximity since I retreated.

“Huup, let’s do this.”

I grasped the book in one hand. Through my fingers, I could physically feel the mana flowing from the hardcover into me.

The beasts transmuted from the construction circle were anomalies with mana as their internal energy source. They were a different type from the beasts that formed naturally.

Thus, there was a separate mana circuit. They could be subdued using Short Circuit like I did during the practical, then.

I got ready to cause a circuit failure.

Well, I tried to get ready.

“Aether!”

Along with the sound of running feet, a large fireball arose. It was similar to the crossfire that I saw during the Combat Magic test but it was much larger and more refined.

The flame flew in the direction of the beasts instead of where I stood.

[Advanced Fire Magic ─ Advanced Bullet X 20]

[Having such mana capacity at that age.... That’s incredible talent.]

As such, I could identify the girl running towards me.

“We don’t have time for greetings. Come with me!”

Lotte, who had taken down five mid-level beasts in an instant, grabbed my wrist as soon as she saw me without even saying hello. Then she u-turned and swiftly sprinted with me in tow in the direction of the Academy.

Lotte asked me as we were running.

“Why didn’t you come to the ceremony today?”

“... It was troublesome.”

“What, just because of that...! Nevermind. This isn’t the time to be talking about that! The school’s in chaos!”

Yeah. I thought so.

So there wasn’t even a moment to chat with Lotte.

I had to get to the central square and diffuse the situation somehow.

1. Korean definition says something about the connection of stratums (layers of rock in the ground). Vein - "a fracture in rock containing a deposit of minerals or ore and typically having an extensive course underground."