The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 26: The Entrance Ceremony (4)

“... A hell of a mess.”

When we got to the east gate, one of the entrances of the Academy, the situation was worse than I’d thought.

The beasts surfaced after being transmuted from the ground. As such, their were pits everywhere on the roads. It’d probably take a week to restore everything.

That wasn’t what was important right now. Under Lotte’s protection, I ran from the east gate to the amphitheater. I was short of breath but there was no time to think about that.

Fuck, my tuition.

My wonderful intention of camping out in the library’s reading room on the first day was ruined. Like this, it would also delay my plan to check out the academic club.

Thinking about how much time would be wasted, I wanted to give a good smack to the one who caused all of this. I suppressed the anger boiling in my head as much as I could and focused on Lotte’s words.

“Horde said that I must bring you.”

“Horde? Who’s that?”

“Vermel Horde, he’s the elf student who got accepted as the top student.

Was it that guy I saw briefly at the written test room...?

That was the end of our conversation. A short while later, we arrived at the central fountain.

When I stood in the middle of the campus grounds and looked around the area, I could see which part had the most extensive damage. It’d be the northern section where the amphitheater was.

At the central square by the fountain, Miss Heerlein was protecting the gathered students.

The armored dinosaurs came from all sides. They were only mid to high-level beasts so they could be beaten by Miss Heerlein’s golems, but the problem was their numbers and the direction from which they came.

They attacked unceasingly from everywhere. But it was better than trying to defend against them while trapped at a dead-end.

It was too much of a havoc for ‘saying hi’. The mound of steel with only tens of bodies grew into hundreds and thousands as time passed.

The role of the faculty including Heerlein wasn’t ‘destroying’ but ‘protecting’. The latter was considered more difficult than the former in the doctrine of combat. If even one out of the hundreds of students got injured, it’d become a huge problem.

There wasn’t room for a single mistake, a huge burden for Miss Heerlein.

Fortunately, there were students who could share that burden.

“Duck, you fools!”

The brat with an antitank weapon made instant corpses of the three Drakes charging from the back. With an earth-shattering noise, the Drakes were split into two.

“Where’d she get that?”

My curiosity didn’t last long. Freyr stuck her hand out towards the halved body and formed another antitank weapon from the corpse.

She belonged to Earth Magic considering the way she transmuted weapons.... But something about it was unusual.

“Miss Heerlein!”

A male elf student quickly scanned the central square. Next to him, a female student with a ferocious eye was following him holding a giant icicle.

[That student must be Vermel Horde.]

Our gazes, both Vermel and mine, moved in the same way. After we glanced at each other, we turned our eyes to the central fountain.

There was no time to lose. I needed to inform them immediately and stop the situation.

“The fountain is the core of the construction circle!”

“We need to destroy the fountain right now!”

[Huh?]

What’s with him?

**

“Are you guys certain?”

“Yes. The core is over here. We need to scoop out the water and uncover the foundation while there are less of them.”

Vermel Horde was indeed the elf student who had sat next to me during the written test. I expected him to pass but had no idea that he’d be the top student.

This elf knew that the core of the circle was within the fountain.

A construction circle wasn’t easy to locate without the creator revealing it. How did this guy know when I even found out from the builder itself?

It was questionable but considering the situation, I decided to let it be for now and focus on the original matter.

“So the top student and second place are saying this simultaneously.... Alright. It’s worth a try.”

Once she heard us, Miss Heerlein sent the whole fountain flying using her golem. The foundation sank a little and water sprayed everywhere. Within the deep pit, the actual construction circle was revealed.

“It really was here!”

The smell of burning hydrocarbon emitted from where the fountain was dug up. At the sudden burst of heat, my face burned. This was due to overheating from the continuous building.

[Indeed, the core was placed beneath the fountain for cooling purposes.]

Just then, Vermel made a request.

“Please take care of this.”

I understood what he meant by that.

There were two main ways to dismantle a multilayer-rune like a construction circle.

The first was to remove it like you would disarming a time bomb by interpreting it carefully, and the second was to destroy the circuit from the outside to render it useless.

The first method was safe but took a long time, and in contrast, the second was quick but very risky. If an inexperienced person attempted to forcefully dismantle the circle, it could explode.

However, a construction circle was a circuit in the end.

[You only need to know two things to dismantle this circle.]

[□ General Theory]

[Kirchhoff’s Circuit Law (Condition met)]

[Thévenin's Theorem (Condition met)]

I’d only need to operate the mana current after changing this complicated thing into an equivalent circuit.

[You can take the mana you didn’t use earlier.]

I obtained 100 sieverts of mana from the hardcover and concentrated it into the staff.

Charging didn’t take long. Rather, the operational efficiency increased to the point that the time taken was reduced greatly compared to when I had fought Lotte.

I hadn’t just been working for the last month. I also refined my techniques during that time. As of now, I could direct an EMP with as much mana as I wanted towards a specific direction.

So there wouldn’t be an incident like before where the mana circuit of everyone else stopped or the golem accidentally malfunctioning.

The time felt short. It didn’t even take three seconds to successfully transfer all the elements to the tip of the staff. From there, I stuck the end of the staff into the construction circle made by the beast.

Eightfold Way – First Form.

“Short Circuit.”

As I chanted the spell, I only thought one thing.

Please refund me my tuition.

**

Once the circle was destroyed, nothing else spawned.

The situation came to an end with the faculty clearing the remaining beasts. Thankfully, there was only property damage and light injuries at most, nothing worse than that.

The incident was resolved for the moment but due to the board deciding that there still could be other potential dangers, we were ordered to go home.

As compensation for the school doing a shitty job, they were going to provide disaster relief funds for the students. The administration wasn’t as terrible, at least.

Tilette was already experiencing financial troubles but not only were they having to refund a part of the students’ tuition, they’d also have to repair the northern sector.

As for the compensation for damages caused by the Drakes in the eastern Fifth District.... Well, they’ll deal with it, I guess.

In the end, I had to stay one more night at Miss Heerlein’s place.

[Today was very eventful. We didn’t even step into the classroom so why am I tired?]

What’s this. The book claims that it’s tired.

[But that’s not the point. You found out something new through today’s incident, Master.]

“Yeah.”

The speaker attached to the mutant Drake that was blocking my way to school this morning. The voice that came from the speaker had the power to instill fear into a person.

The residual effects were still there. I was half-certain that the owner of the voice was a Cataclysm.

During our conversation, that beast had carried on as if this whole situation was a joke. And they described everything that happened today as ‘dropping by to say hi’.

Simply put, it was a roundabout threat saying how ‘this is only the beginning’.

─ Half the empire is in our hands.

“That’s what’s most concerning.”

The Empire was an absolute monarchy. All power came from the Emperor to be used for the Imperial court and nobles.

Though Tilette Academy’s status system existed, it was only for the sake of supporting the nation’s bizarre internal, external political structure.

According to that beast, the Empire was currently a house of cards.

[There’s also the possibility that a beast infiltrated the Imperial court or the inner circle.]

“Is that even possible?”

[There are humanoid-type beasts. Those are usually Calamities or greater, excellent at mimicry. They do anything they can to create an alibi for infiltrating human society.]

I hadn’t known because I’d only seen brainless ones, but now that I’ve met one that could talk, they didn’t seem to be a force that could easily be won against. They were far more intelligent than I’d imagined.

They couldn’t just been seen as machines. It was better to think of them as futuristic creatures with the latest AI technology.

The problem was.... My mind was overwhelmed thinking about it.

This seriously was hell-level of difficulty. Was I actually going to make it home before I died?

[The most urgent thing is to find a method that will fend off a Cataclysm. Even if the active mages could defeat the Calamities somehow, there’s no proper way to counter these guys at the moment if they appear.]

If they weren’t bluffing about their control over the Empire, then that meant the Cataclysms were lazing around for a specific purpose even though they could demolish all of humanity whenever they wished.

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That was true fear. Fear of the unknown. An opponent that couldn’t be defeated with the available magitek was looking down on us leisurely with their legs crossed.

[I’m understanding why Professor Hasfeldt was obsessed with developing Flare. Not that it justifies what that bitch did to you.]

To survive, to go back alive, there needed to be a method to prepare for a Cataclysm.

When I combined all of my prior knowledge, I could only think of one way.

“Hey, there’s a writing function starting from the intermediate level, right?”

[There is. You can develop the magic that you want. I’ll launch a virtual keyboard so jot down what you’d like.]

A translucent, virtual interface appeared before me. I didn’t think I’d see something like this in a fantasy world, but it wasn’t surprising at this point. This would also be the Goddess’ power.

[* Switching to Admin Mode.]

[Booting.......]

[TOOL : Develop a new Innate Magic within the current development environment.]

[General Theory Fabrication]

I typed in the first paragraph in the development environment below.

[□ General Theory : Mass─Energy Equivalence]

[The total energy (E) of matter is equal to the Lorentz Factor (γ) times mass (m) and the speed of light (c) squared. Energy can be converted to mass and vice versa, and in physics, the amount of energy produced corresponds to mass lost.]

[TIP : This is a theorem crucial to the development of nuclear weapons.]

I was going to attempt research and development to expand this into the ‘Magic Element─Energy Convertibility Theorem.’

An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

A cataclysm for a Cataclysm.