ALL NOVEL Chapter 16
Chapter 16
—–CROW—–
I knew Gerard would come at me. After all, I was the one who’d poured oil on the already raging fire.
But activating [Observation] wasn’t just about gauging his mood. With [Observation] active and focused, I could perceive the world as if time had slowed, allowing me to react.
“Hah!”
Huh? He’s still fast?
I barely managed to block Gerard’s fist with my guard.
A sharp pain shot through my arm. Honestly, it hurt so much I wondered if the block had even done anything. He must have been holding back though. Otherwise, I would have been sent flying, guard and all.
“Ugh…?”
Through the gap in my raised guard, I saw Gerard’s face. The moment our eyes met, a look of bewilderment flashed across his expression.
Damn it. It’s the effect of [Observation].
These eyes put pressure on my opponents. He probably thought I had a hidden trump card.
I needed to be ready. Gerard was about to get serious.
*Thwang!*
I bent backward, dodging before his other fist could land, but it wasn’t enough. I managed to deflect the blow by slapping his wrist with my palm, diverting the attack.
Even though I’d interrupted the attack, the palm of my hand stung. Was this really just raw physical ability, without any skills involved?
He was a monster.
What would he do next? How would he follow up?
I focused. In the slowed-down world, I watched Gerard’s right arm extend towards me.
My posture was bad. I’d lost my balance while deflecting his previous attack.
Yes, I was losing my balance and falling. That meant his next attack would likely be a downward strike.
Even Gerard wouldn’t be able to deliver a proper blow with his weight shifted like that.
I braced myself, raising my guard again, curling my body as much as possible. I couldn’t avoid this attack. I’d have to take the hit and prepare for the next.
“Hah!”
“What…?!”
But it was different. Gerard didn’t strike my guard. Instead, he grabbed my raised arm.
“Uh…?”
And then I flew. No, I was *thrown*.
In that moment, I realized. There was no way I could defend against Gerard in my current state.
It was checkmate. But Gerard didn’t press the attack.
The match was already over. Both of us, and everyone watching, knew it.
Such humiliation in a public setting. Normally, I’d avoid this, but for the strategy, it was necessary.
“Hah… As expected of a genius.”
Gerard approached me with a friendly smile as I managed to land. His steps were relaxed, and the amiable smile remained on his face, but even without [Observation], I could tell he was flustered.
“…Thank you for the match. I apologize for my earlier rudeness.”
“Huh? No. If that incident sparked your passion, then it was a good thing, wasn’t it?”
“Thank you.”
I never intended to disregard him. I just wanted to assess his capabilities.
The result? Objective confirmation that I couldn’t beat him in my current state. So, to win, I needed to prepare.
“Professor Gerard. Would it be possible for us to spar like this again sometime?”
“Huh?”
Sparring with him would allow me to observe his habits and preferred techniques. Of course, it might not be that helpful in a real fight. Even if I knew his habits, he, the one who’d honed them over years, wouldn’t be oblivious to them. He’d have countermeasures. Besides, he was a combat instructor, after all. My crude techniques, learned in such a short time, would be meaningless.
“My current situation is more precarious than you might think. Would you be willing to train me, even a little?”
“Ah! Yes, no problem. Hahaha! There are already sparring sessions in the curriculum. Since Oz’s physical abilities are higher than I expected, I’ll be your opponent personally.”
So, I would do the opposite.
I would be stubbornly, incomprehensibly, predictable. I would show the same weaknesses, repeat the same mistakes. A trap I could prepare in advance because I knew about Gerard from the start. That was the minimum requirement, the sharpened edge needed to ensnare him.
“Thank you, Professor Gerard. Shall we start with some warm-up exercises then?”
“Hahaha! I’m glad you understand, Oz. Warming up is important!”
I’m sorry, but I’m going to show Gerard the most devastating lies.
The day he understands me will never come.
* * *
Just as Tuesday’s daily dungeon was fire-attributed, Wednesday’s was, naturally, water-attributed.
The problem was that the entrance to the descending dungeon was flooded.
“Now this…”
Is this okay?
Tuesday’s daily dungeon was a lava zone, but it wasn’t hot. So, this would be the same. Even if it was filled with water, movement and breathing shouldn’t be a problem.
“Hah!”
I took a deep breath and entered the dungeon. Even though the background was underwater, there was no resistance to movement. I could probably breathe, but the feeling of aversion was unavoidable.
“Pwah!”
I held my breath until the limit, then came back out. I wasn’t mentally prepared yet.
The fear of the unknown—being stabbed with a sword or hit by magic, things I hadn’t actually experienced yet—was less concerning than the pain of water entering my nose.
I’d learned something new.
“Haa… Haa…”
After catching my breath for a while, I checked my clothes. They weren’t even damp, not a single drop of water. So, the water in the dungeon was an illusion.
It wasn’t that I didn’t know that, but…
“Okay, let’s try again.”
I stared blankly at the dungeon entrance for a moment, then made up my mind. This time, I didn’t even inhale. I was ready.
The pain of water in my nose was just something to endure briefly. A few coughs like I’d choked, and a momentary stinging sensation in my nose.
“Uh…?”
But despite my resolve, I couldn’t enter.
It wasn’t that my feet wouldn’t move. It felt like I was blocked by something. An invisible wall was sealing the dungeon entrance.
[Observation – Activated]
I immediately activated [Observation] and examined the entrance. This was an anomaly. But I had a hunch. If my hunch was correct, [Observation] wouldn’t work.
“…As expected, I can’t see it.”
As I’d thought. [Observation], which could see through the nature of things, couldn’t analyze this mysterious barrier. It didn’t even try.
Things that [Observation] couldn’t even begin to analyze shared one thing in common: they were implemented by the game’s system.
Just like I couldn’t understand the principles behind [Mana Dominator] or [Spatial Barrier], this was the same.
“A daily limit?”
Like most games, daily dungeons had daily limits. In the game, you could challenge each floor once. I thought there was no such limit because I’d cleared all the floors on Tuesday. But I was wrong. The limit applied to entering the dungeon itself.
“This is even worse.”
The original game didn’t take away your attempt if you failed to clear a floor. This was harsh. Either way, today’s daily dungeon was locked out.
Basic Magic
[Static Ball]
*Crackle!*
I tried firing a basic spell as a test, but as expected, it couldn’t penetrate or destroy the barrier.
[Mana Dominator Lv. 1]
If normal magic couldn’t pass through the barrier, what about a skill using [Mana Dominator]?
“Hmm…”
I still wasn’t used to the massive drain on my mana caused by [Mana Dominator]. Oz had an incredible amount of mana. I could spam basic magic all day. The mana cost would increase with the difficulty of the spell, but not at this drastic rate. If other magic was like turning on a faucet to fill a glass, [Mana Dominator] was like scooping out groundwater with a bucket.
Anyway, the completed spell created this way was at the level of a N-rank mage…
[Dig]
“Damn it, please!”
Even in this ridiculous situation? Give me an attack spell!
Well, since I didn’t want to waste a completed spell, I decided to conduct another experiment. I tried digging near the dungeon entrance with the completed [Dig].
It wouldn’t dig, like something was interfering.
After that, I kept using [Mana Dominator] until I got an SR-rank or higher skill. But even with higher power, I couldn’t break the wall. It was like it was protected by some kind of law. And the thing closest to a “law” here was probably…
“‘The outside’?”
There was some connection between the law-protected dungeon entrance and the broken sky. And probably my game-like abilities, too.
* * *
About a week passed.
I couldn’t confirm what dropped in Wednesday’s daily dungeon, but it was probably
Since I couldn’t use most of those items yet, I decided to minimize my time in the daily dungeons and focus on classes.
The most important one was, of course, Intermediate Magic.
“S-So… the formulaic structure of [Fire Wall] is…”
[Observation – Activated]
“H-Here, by weaving the ‘Fixation’ and ‘Ascension’ formulas…”
Professor Aira’s Intermediate Magic class was important to me now, so I hadn’t missed a single session since the first day. Unfortunately, unlike basic magic, I couldn’t use intermediate magic just by seeing it once or twice. The problem was that I hadn’t fully integrated Oz’s knowledge yet. More precisely, I couldn’t draw the formulas.
“And by inserting the ‘Ignition’ formula between them…”
Even with the knowledge from Oz and understanding the formulas that made up the magic, I was the one who had to actually draw them.
Magic was used in a remarkably complex way. In games and manga, it often had a mathematical aspect, but in the world of *Broken Sky*, it was closer to art.
“A formula like this is completed…”
Constructing a magic formula was like composing a sentence in a single brushstroke. If basic magic was a simple circle with intersecting straight lines forming a picture, intermediate magic and above incorporated flowing curves. Moreover, from advanced magic onwards, it entered the realm of 3D, and magic beyond that could be considered an art form.
“Hmm…”
“Uh! O-Oz? Is something wrong?”
“No, it’s fine. Please continue. The other students are waiting.”
“Uuuh…”
Naturally, being good at art didn’t mean you were good at magic. That was because others started by refining the mana itself when drawing formulas with it. It was like controlling the flow from a faucet to get just the right amount of paint. Of course, thanks to [Observation], it was as if I was already holding a pencil. The problem was that I was terrible at drawing.
I intended to draw a straight line, but it kept coming out curved. Strange… Why was this happening?
“Professor Aira. Could you show me again?”
“Oz… If I did something wrong, please just tell me.”
“It’s fine.”
“I-I can do it properly, you know? I just made a mistake because I wasn’t feeling well earlier. I obtained my Senior Mage rank legitimately! I took the test properly!”
“I know.”
Professor Aira was much more troublesome than her in-game impression. In the game, she was a beautiful woman with a meaningful and mysterious aura, but now she was always anxious, like a rained-on puppy. Of course, given my situation, I understood her reaction. It was probably like working on something and having the division commander come and stare meaningfully.
Of course, I wasn’t a division commander, and I was currently half-dismissed, so I didn’t have that authority. Professor Aira probably knew that, but… it seemed the fact that Oz was far above her in rank made her uncomfortable. But didn’t she think that reacting so frantically would make her look even more suspicious? Or, considering the nature of [Observation], was this reaction natural?
Of course, I couldn’t deactivate [Observation] since I couldn’t use magic properly without it.
“T-The next magic is [Parma Shield], an intermediate-level phenomenon magic, and its formulaic structure is…”
[Parma Shield] was an intermediate-level magic, but it didn’t exist as a skill in the game. It was supposed to create a small circular shield, but since the area it protected was small, it probably wasn’t very useful. Still, it was a magic I’d never seen before. I should at least take notes here.
“What did you just write?!”
“Professor Aira, please ignore me and continue with the class. The other students are getting anxious.”
“I’m more anxious that Oz is looking at me with those scary eyes… No! It’s nothing! I have no complaints! So, if you could just erase what you just wrote…”
“…”
She was truly exhausting.
In the end, I put away my writing utensils and memorized the Intermediate Magic lessons in my head. Fortunately, Oz’s body had an excellent memory for magic, so it wasn’t a problem.
* * *
Besides Intermediate Magic, there was only one other subject I needed to focus on.
Basic Combat, taught by Gerard. I’d been thinking about how to handle the situation with him and Eleanor until recently.
At first, I considered telling Tia. But I only had suspicions, no proof. If I brought up the Mana Oath, she’d pay attention, but that wouldn’t work either. The most important thing was that Tia didn’t know Eleanor’s true identity yet. She was an overwhelmingly powerful dragon, so she didn’t bother investigating the students at the academy. But if I brought up the Mana Oath, she would definitely question Eleanor’s existence. She’d ask about the circumstances between me and Gerard.
I couldn’t reveal Eleanor’s identity yet. Well, even if I could reveal her identity, I had to hide the fact that she was a Key Person.
The cracks in the sky were still a mystery. Eleanor might hold clues about that phenomenon, and she was also a Key Person, like Tia. If that fact was revealed too early, the main story would become too convoluted.
I didn’t intend to follow the main story exactly, but there were a few exceptions. One was the relationships between the Key Persons. If their relationships changed too early, the difficulty of the main story could spike dramatically.
“Hah!”
“Ugh!”
Therefore, I had to handle this myself.
To do that, I repeatedly sparred with Gerard and fabricated a habit.
“…You have a habit of extending your left arm when you’re flustered. You’re subconsciously trying to stop your opponent, but that could become a fatal weakness later on.”
“It feels that way now, not just later…”
I always extended my left arm when cornered. The reason I chose that method was simple. On the first day of Basic Combat class, he finished me with a throw.
“Against a swordsman, your arm would be cut off, and against a martial artist like me, your joint would be shattered, or you’d be thrown.”
“I know that intellectually… but it’s difficult.”
“I understand. Habits formed in emergencies are hard to break.”
“Yes…”
He preferred throwing his opponents into the air and attacking them while they were defenseless, rather than using joint locks. So, I was offering my arm to make it easier for him to grab and throw me. Sometimes I messed up the landing and wrecked my ankle, but the plan was steadily progressing.
“Professor Gerard, do you think I can break this habit within a week?”
“Within a week? Hmm… Come to think of it, the first-year practical training is coming up soon.”
“Yes, it would be great if I could fix it by then, but…”
I gestured to the students watching Gerard and me, implying that my weakness was already known to many. He scratched his head and said,
“Even so, a week seems difficult. It would be best to avoid getting into that situation in the first place.”
“I see…”
With this, the first part of the plan was complete. He believed I couldn’t break this habit in a week. That meant he’d think the same in a real fight.
The first-year practical training was in a week. A single dagger, sharpened to pierce the opening created by Gerard’s rage towards Eleanor, was now ready.
“Let’s go again.”
“Anything for a passionate student.”
And just like before, I was thrown after he grabbed my left arm.
“Pfft.”
The people around us started to chuckle as they watched me being thrown repeatedly in the same way.
Yes, laugh. Make me the laughingstock. Instill the prejudice that I’ll never succeed.
Your mockery will only sharpen my blade.
—–CROW—–