Ch.268268 – The Young Lady with High Potential

# 268 – A Lady with High Potential

Mandela Castella.

Though not a playable character as a sophomore, she’s a senior that players inevitably encounter when starting academy life alongside the 981st class students.

She’s the kind of senior who serves as a “deterrent force” preventing any insubordination against sophomores among the incompetent seniors of the 980th class.

Naturally, her danger level ranks first among all sophomores.

She’s a talented individual who lives up to her title as top student, significantly raising the class average.

‘This is troublesome. There’s a huge difference between contract scammer Valocassio, an early-game villain incompetent senior, and Senior Mandela.’

While some seniors stagnate in skill as they advance through grades, others continue to grow steadily like the protagonists.

Mandela Castella is a character guaranteed to advance non-stop until senior year.

This is evident from how she joined the student council from sophomore year, when most students only get positions from junior year.

‘That senior’s potential is extremely high.’

Though she might seem similar to the individualistic hero who possesses the strongest skills in her year, she’s actually quite different.

If she truly set her mind to it, she could show just how strong a 980th class student—usually pushed around by both upper and lower classes—could become.

“Now then, here’s a quiz. What type of magic carries special mana wavelengths through ‘sound waves’ to attack opponents without them even realizing it~?”

“Sound attack magic!”

“Correct~ As a reward, I’ll tell you what types of sound attack magic I’ve cast so far. You’ve already been affected by seven different sound attack spells during our conversation!”

Andersen desperately stirred his internal mana with disbelieving eyes.

He used <Self-Observation>, a basic mana control technique that circulates mana according to normal rhythm to find points where circulation is disrupted.

After checking the status abnormalities inscribed on his body, Andersen’s face turned pale blue.

“Confusion, dizziness, sensory distortion, and blurred vision too?”

Perhaps it’s because he chose only difficult lectures?

It seems he somehow resisted a few status abnormalities.

Still, with abnormalities accumulating at that rate, Andersen was already too late.

Standing in place, he closed his eyes and covered his ears, desperately raising mana to drive out the abnormalities and purify his body rhythm.

“Ah~hahahahaha~~!! Do you really think you can restore your body rhythm before I’m done with you~~?”

With Senior Mandela’s shout, whose location couldn’t even be identified due to echo magic, Andersen screamed “Huheok!” and fell backward ungracefully.

The way he touched the ground while staring at empty space made it clear he was already suffering from substantial <hallucinations> and <auditory hallucinations>.

It was a rookie mistake not knowing that Senior Mandela’s voice should never be heard without protection.

“Senior Mandela. I don’t want to fight you. You even conceded victory to us freshmen during the Grand Sports Festival, though you had your own calculations.”

“Ahahaha! What an impertinent thing to say. Only those with power can avoid fighting. Peace is nonsense for those who don’t prove their strength!”

With a powerful shout, a large nearby tree broke with a cracking sound.

This wasn’t a hallucination or auditory hallucination.

The tree, cut by a <Wind Cutter> mixed between sound attacks, was actually breaking and tilting toward me.

Tadat

I lightly stepped aside to avoid the tree, and dust rose with a thud.

Beyond the chaotic view, the “Ahahaha” laughter grew louder, echoing from all directions.

The volume was so immense that without covering your ears or blocking sensations with mana, the pain would be unbearable to bare ears.

‘This is why even high-level players avoid becoming enemies with Senior Mandela.’

If you raise your hands to cover your ears to endure the pain, magic flies at ultra-high speed targeting your exposed abdomen and chest.

If you protect your ears with mana-based sensory blocking to force combat, she uses dangerous magic that can’t be detected by sound without hesitation.

‘But I’m a veteran player!’

<No Sensation>

<Wave Detection>

As soon as I activated the pain-blocking technique that temporarily cuts off sensations, sounds abruptly stopped as if my existence was isolated from the world.

A curse-level sensory deprivation state persisted where I couldn’t tell if I was standing on the ground or if my body was swaying.

Still, I could tell.

By the flashes of light, I could determine the direction, intensity, and mana pattern of the enemy’s powerful magic.

The light, intensity, and shape of the waves revealed the enemy’s magic, distance, power, and imminent activation time.

[Your Breathing is above 50. You temporarily ignore the effects of <Calming Powder>.]

[Your Balance is above 100. Your body moves appropriately without collapsing within <No Sensation>.]

[Your Psychological Prediction is above 50. You continuously evade magic with evasive maneuvers.]

I dodged magic, dodged what wasn’t magic, and even dodged surprised gazes to get behind her.

[The total experience of mental system sub-category <Let Me Guess> is above 500. You instantly grasp the reality within the illusion.]

Function experience points that were normally just accumulated through player skill finally show their true value when senses are deprived and “luck” becomes crucial.

High ability scores that allow the judgment that “diligent training engraved in the body naturally manifests in moments of crisis.”

This was proven by feeding plenty of dark lightning into Senior Mandela’s hand.

Tuk tuk.

At the signal to remove No Sensation by tapping my ears, my senses returned.

The sensation of feet touching the ground, lungs breathing, and heart beating properly returned.

Sounds that were muffled like underwater gradually grew clearer, as if rising to the surface, until they returned to normal distinct sounds.

“Junior, your skills are quite good?”

“Yours too, Senior Mandela!”

The senior who had been staring at my face with an unreadable expression brushed off her hands with a smirk.

The black lightning that had been painfully lingering at her fingertips scattered to the ground.

“That’s all for today! It was just a light greeting?”

Fortunately, it seems I passed Senior Mandela’s test.

But why is the departing senior rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand?

If the sting of dark electricity was actually painful enough to bring tears, that’s somewhat satisfying.

From now on, I’ll aim for a million volts!

On the way back, I should raise my electrical resistance at the high-voltage fence of the junior lab!

* *

During the Grand Sports Festival, I already understood that Oknodie’s mana control had reached a considerable level through her battle with the hero.

But that’s just mana.

Could she demonstrate her skills even when allowing a senior one year above to strike first without an instructor’s protection?

Mandela gradually displayed her skills.

She took away hearing with sound attacks and disrupted balance.

She mixed several restraining spells with attack magic against the freshman who could barely stand.

She dispersed calming powder that forcibly relaxed muscles, dissolved in mist by combining wind magic with water vapor magic.

With this much effort, most people would find it difficult to stand on two feet, unable to move their bodies as intended, getting knocked around until they collapsed.

Just like how the Andersen young master was now getting beaten while desperately clinging to a nearby tree.

‘For a duke’s son, he’s quite resilient!’

It wasn’t sincere admiration.

It was closer to mockery, like saying it’s fun to hit him.

In contrast, Oknodie was the real deal.

She avoided restraining techniques by lightly moving her head side to side and gently pushing off the ground with her toes.

The real attacks mixed in were deflected by a sword she had drawn at some point, crushing Mandela’s illusion.

‘Too fast.’

Her reaction speed, finding countermeasures.

The speed at finding her position, the speed of charging in.

Oknodie was fast in every aspect.

Almost like wondering if even the 3-stage enhanced maximum power-up of <White Holy Knight Roo>, a sophomore fully armed with the cowardly power of faith, could match this.

This was the result of training.

The product of instincts engraved from a very young age.

The true face of the Wiheomhae Foundation’s top scholarship student hidden beneath the smiling face of a harmless child.

Pajijik.

One exchange ended with allowing a light strike.

This was as far as it would go.

She instinctively released her power.

Beyond this point, things would become truly serious.

“Junior, your skills are quite good?”

“Yours too, Senior Mandela!”

She could have continued if she wanted.

But it couldn’t end as just a game, play, or test.

Because there was a maid who had already drawn a dagger and was waiting for an opportunity to charge in from close by.

If she blocked Oknodie, the maid would charge in; if she blocked the maid, Oknodie would charge in.

‘You must have known you would die.’

As an academy employee, she would know.

That students with many points could get away with killing someone through an “accidental mistake” within the academy.

Knowing this, she was still prepared to jump in with full sincerity.

That maid was from the Foundation.

A maid with such extraordinary loyalty that she would risk her life for Oknodie.

“That’s all for today! It was just a light greeting?”

Unlike her cheerful farewell, her inner thoughts were filled with gloomy desires.

‘How interesting. I thought the Foundation was just a gathering of unfortunate people. Does this mean even I misjudged the Foundation’s true capabilities to such an extent?’

Her thoughts about only needing to graduate the juniors and seniors to secure the next student council president position had changed.

Even after observing the hero at the Grand Sports Festival, she had thought that while she might not match in power, the hero wasn’t a competitor for the president position in terms of charm and political power, but Oknodie was different.

‘Indeed, the Dark Princess.’

She extends her influence by reaching out to maids, classmates, and even students on leave.

Now she too wanted to see it.

How far that evil plan would spread.

Above all, her heart was racing.

The fact that she finally had a worthy opponent.

A “rival” worthy of the name, which didn’t exist in her own year.

Not Deadcat who arbitrarily considered herself a rival, but someone she could acknowledge as a rival.

She was almost tearfully happy, if only a little.

‘I hope you reveal those evil claws soon. Dark Princess Oknodie. Someday I’ll settle things with you for the student council president position!’