I Became a Magical Genius After Regression

Chapter 33

“Shield…”

Tap.

“Shield…”

Tap.

Randel used the shield magic incessantly.

Each time, a translucent shield formed beneath Randel’s feet and then disappeared.

The shield was a magic that created a protective barrier with some physical force in the air.

So, if one could use the shield without casting, acrobatics like what Randel was doing now were possible.

Creating them continuously like stairs to ascend or descend in the air.

Drip.

Even though it felt like his mana was about to reverse and kill him, using magic continuously meant his body couldn’t be fine.

Black blood flowed down from the corners of his almost lifeless face.

Tap.

Despite that, Randel managed to maintain superhuman concentration and finally reached the bottom of the canyon.

There was someone who had arrived earlier.

A pile of collapsed rocks, and on top of it, the fallen Shotel.

“Ugh…”

Unlike Randel, who had used the shield trick, Shotel had bravely fallen with his bare body.

Because of that, all his limbs were broken, and the armor he was wearing was crumpled like a piece of paper.

“You, you… Please, spare me.”

Shotel begged as he saw Randel approaching.

But Randel was not in a normal state either.

“Cough, cough!”

Every time he had a dry cough, blood spurted out.

The area under his eyes was already darkened, and he staggered with difficulty, struggling to take even one step.

Even though he used a fairly wide shield after reaching the 3rd circle, it was a miracle he had come down safely from the cliff to here.

Plod, plod.

Still, Randel somehow pulled himself together and approached Shotel.

A knight’s other nickname is the cockroach of the battlefield.

A knight lives with mana, which has the attribute of animating life, accumulated all over his body.

Because of that, they healed quickly even when injured.

Of course, the possibility of this knight in front of him recovering was slim.

‘He should have been a complete mess…’

But what if, by any chance, he did recover?

Randell would be left helpless and die.

Tremble.

With trembling hands, Randell drew a dagger from Shotel’s waist.

He then climbed onto Shotel’s chest and raised the dagger high.

“This, this… so futile…”

Shotel no longer pleaded or said anything else.

He just stared blankly into the void beyond Randell with unfocused eyes.

Randell thrust the dagger towards Shotel.

And just before the blade touched his throat.

Stop.

He halted the dagger.

Thud.

Because Shotel’s head fell to the side.

“……”

He placed his fingers under Shotel’s nose but felt no breath.

Instead of delivering a final blow, Randell dropped the dagger onto Shotel’s chest.

Then he neatly arranged Shotel’s hands over the dagger.

“…Farewell.”

He didn’t know what kind of life Shotel had lived, but he was a knight who hadn’t even reached middle age.

To have such skill at that age usually meant living a fiercely competitive life.

Randell mourned Shotel’s life.

But it might be a futile gesture.

In his current state, he might soon follow the knight to the afterlife.

“Ugh!”

Randell vomited beside Shotel.

Blood-mixed stomach acid kept coming up.

After a while, the blockage in his stomach felt like it had been cleared, as if a stone had been lifted.

But because of that, it seemed like the remaining strength he had left also drained away.

“Damn, I’m going to die…”

Randel, who barely caught his breath, began casting.

There was a spell he had practiced to death for moments like this, reducing the casting time to one second.

“Huff… Healing. Healing…? Healing…!”

But no matter how much he cast, the mana didn’t move at all.

It was then that Randel realized his mana had reached its limit.

Even though he had been squeezing out magic despite the mana backlash, it was now completely tangled.

“This is insane… If I use moving casting again… I’m not human…”

In the desperate moment when all attacks were blocked by the knight.

One thing flashed in his mind.

[Moving Casting]

Since the spear handled most of the calculations anyway, couldn’t he just move separately?

With this shameless thought, he tried using Magic Arrow once, only to vomit everything inside and give up. That was the moving casting.

At that time, Randel thought as soon as he used the magic.

―Ah, this won’t work.

In fact, he still thought the same now.

But whether it worked or not didn’t matter, he would die if he didn’t do it right now.

Shotell had changed his words at the last moment, saying he wouldn’t kill him but take him captive, but it was the same thing.

In the end, a war between territories would break out, and even if he survived, his family would be sacrificed.

Moreover, Manwellin and the villagers too.

In the worst case, he might be mobilized in the territorial war and directly attack them.

So there was no other way.

Whether he lived or died, he had to bet on moving casting.

‘Still, I succeeded splendidly.’

He strengthened his body with mana and ran, forcibly summoning the spear to cast alone.

Although he was on the verge of madness by the time he reached the cliff, he somehow succeeded.

It was fortunate that he encountered them right near the gorge.

However.

“No… No matter what… I didn’t know… the aftereffects… would be… this severe…”

Randel, who had barely managed to exhale, pinched his thigh.

Normally, the pain would have jolted him awake, but he only felt a slight sting.

It meant his body was dying too.

If he lost consciousness now, he would surely have lunch in hell with that knight named Shotel.

‘What should I do… Ah!’

Randel suddenly remembered the knight’s words.

―Oh, it’s dangerous. Let’s end this now. When you wake up after a brief faint, everything will be over. Don’t worry about dying. I have a potion, so I’ll give it to you.

“Potion…!”

Randel desperately searched inside Shotel’s armor.

Potions are usually stored in glass bottles. They spoil if they come into contact with metal.

So it would be stored inside the armor, not in an exposed pocket.

‘Please, please… there it is!’

As soon as Randel felt the hard texture at his fingertips, he immediately pulled it out to examine it.

Sure enough, a glass bottle the size of a pinky finger came out.

Inside, a red liquid was sloshing around.

The impact from falling off the cliff, but it had miraculously remained unbroken.

“Ugh…”

Randel applied force to his trembling thumb. The tip snapped off.

Gulp, gulp.

His hands were shaking so much that he might spill it, so he put the whole bottle in his mouth and rolled it with his tongue.

This small bottle cost a whopping 10 gold.

There wasn’t much in it, so it only took two gulps, but the effect was amazing.

As soon as he drank the potion, a warm sensation spread throughout his body.

Thanks to that, the nausea that felt like his insides were turning upside down subsided, and the dizziness that made the world spin around eased enough for him to walk.

Ptooey.

Randel spat out the glass bottle and sighed in relief.

“Huff, huff… I feel like I can live now.”

Randel, who had been resting for a while, stood up.

He wanted to lie down and take a nap, but it was the peak of the scorching sun.

If he slept here, he would dry up like the jerky packed in his subspace.

Thud.

Randell barely managed to walk to a nearby shade and sat down, inspecting his spatial ring.

Fortunately, the ring remained intact despite the fierce battle.

Zzzng―

As he infused mana into the ring, the spatial space opened.

It was a relief that the engraved spatial space could be opened and closed with a small amount of mana.

‘First, something to drink… something to drink…’

Randell pulled out a water bottle from the spatial space and gulped it down in one go.

Then he summoned another bottle and poured it over his head.

Ssshh.

The cool water soaked his head and washed away some of the blood on his face.

Only then did he feel truly alive.

The fierce struggle for survival had finally ended.

“Phew…”

Randell leaned his limp body against the wall.

He tilted his head back with his eyes closed.

‘How long will it take for the next troops to arrive?’

The first thing that came to mind was the soldiers.

What he told the knight was not a lie.

The soldiers electrocuted by the lightning could survive if treated properly.

It would take some time for them to recover, report to the territory, and for the next support troops to arrive.

How long would it take?

‘Since they are sentinels, they should have at least a reporting crystal ball.’

The crystal ball was an artifact favored by the powerful.

When activated with a magic stone, it allowed voice communication over a certain distance, making it an essential item for managing a large territory.

‘If they report that the canyon was attacked with that…’

It would take about three days for the troops to arrive from the nearest castle.

‘I must leave before then.’

But Randell couldn’t hide his regret.

‘There are really only a few places left now…’

Most of the canyons had been searched, leaving only a few places untouched.

It would take at most a day to look around, but the problem was that the mana had backflowed.

Since it was impossible to use detection magic right away, they had to inspect with their eyes, which would take at least three days.

With his body not in normal condition, if he didn’t retreat now, he might encounter additional troops.

‘Damn it… I need to come up with a new plan.’

The best plan was to find the ruins, loot them, and leave.

If that happened, there would be no reason for the two territories to cooperate and attack Endis territory, to which Randell belonged.

But he failed.

They would probably excavate the ruins as history dictated.

No, the soldiers in the canyon had already been attacked by Randell.

Thinking that the information about the ruins had spread outside, they were likely to search the canyon even more frantically.

That would speed up the excavation.

“First, I need to sell this information to the information guild, and with that money, take my family and leave the territory… huh?”

Randell muttered heavily as he opened his eyes.

But on the wall visible above his tilted head, there was a strange pattern drawn.

Covered in dust, the overall shape was not visible, but it was clearly a human touch.

Swipe, swipe.

Randell reached out and wiped off the dust.

And then, as he wiped a bit harder without thinking.

Click.

“Huh?”

The ground beneath Randell, where he was sitting, disappeared.

Along with Randell.

* * *

“We found it! It’s here!”

A desolate wilderness.

Someone shouted and stuck their head out from the top of the canyon located in the center.

Then, a rope was lowered from the top of the canyon to the ground, and people began to descend one by one.

A dozen or so people appeared that way.

Among them, a female knight wearing chain armor and carrying a rapier looked ahead with a stern expression.

There lay a man, lifeless and in a wretched state.

The female knight glanced down at her emaciated fiancé lying in the wilderness for a moment, then asked the soldier next to her.

“Did you say that wizard fell with him?”

“Yes, ma’am. The soldiers reported it clearly before they were executed.”

“But there’s no sign of his body? How did he survive?”

The female knight scanned the surroundings with sharp eyes.

But there was no trace of the wizard anywhere.

All that was there were empty potion bottles and traces of vomited blood.

No, there were also footprints leading to the edge of the canyon.

But they abruptly stopped at some point.

She thoroughly searched the area just in case, but found nothing unusual.

“Did a wyvern or griffon snatch him away? Hey.”

“Yes, Sir Kasan.”

“Are there any flying monsters around here?”

“I’ve heard there aren’t. Not only flying monsters, but there aren’t even any beasts for them to prey on, so no monsters have been sighted.”

“…Conduct a thorough search of the area!”

“Understood!”

The female knight spoke through gritted teeth as she watched the soldiers scatter.

“I don’t know who he is… but when we catch him, I’ll make him beg for death.”

Blood trickled from the corner of the female knight’s mouth as she clenched her teeth.