Ch.333333 – Reckless Challenge 2

<333 – Reckless Challenge 2>

“Everyone, take out the mana boards in your drawers.”

Professor Pythagoras thought the <Casting Magic Through Knowledge Assessment> lecture was boring.

“In this world, there’s a term called ‘magic user.’ Those who cannot gather mana and instead use magical effects by tearing scrolls and throwing potion vials. Mana board users are fundamentally no different. However, from an efficiency standpoint, mana board users have the worst cost-effectiveness. First three to answer, why?”

A second-year student who looked like some bizarre creature with disheveled hair, as if they had saved time on haircuts to study more, slowly raised their hand.

“Unlike real magic, magic that relies on equipment is difficult to control.”

The professor’s eyes twisted fiercely, as if scolding them for presenting such a pathetic answer.

Not wanting to miss the opportunity, two other second-years raised their hands in succession.

“You can’t reduce casting time!”

“You can’t specify targets for targeting spells!”

“All wrong.”

With a flick of Professor Pythagoras’s hand, the three second-years who had raised their hands and were now trying to lower their heads to their desks to avoid eye contact suddenly floated upward.

“Huh?”

“My, my body!”

“Stop exaggerating. Inferior students learn knowledge through their bodies, not their minds. Feel your ignorance physically until the end of the lecture.”

The three wrong-answerers flailed in midair before reaching the classroom ceiling and stopping their movements.

They froze in fear, knowing that if they moved carelessly and fell, they could easily break a bone from that height.

They were fools who didn’t even deserve to be second-years.

Just a bunch of idiots who deserved to be held back immediately.

‘Most students who need to use magic through knowledge assessment are this pathetic.’

Even Professor Pythagoras himself was a magic user who couldn’t use magic through normal methods. But his case was different from these students who lacked both passion and talent.

“Using a mana board means poor control. You can’t reduce casting time. You can’t specify targets for targeting spells. Who decided such things?”

A dazzling light leaked from the mana board in the professor’s hand.

The second-years hanging from the ceiling plummeted toward the classroom floor, screaming.

“If control were poor, your bones would have broken upon collision with the ground.”

As the professor placed his hand on the mana board, the second-years floated back up into the air.

“Let’s go twice as fast.”

“We’re sorry, Professor!!”

“We’ll never give wrong answers again!!”

“Save us!!”

The second-years’ cries grew louder.

It was already this precarious, and if they fell at an even faster speed, they would truly collide with the ground.

Despite their desperate pleas, the professor lifted them into the air without a hint of mercy or hesitation.

Then he released the power.

The seniors fell without even having time to scream.

The scene was so brutal that even the other second-years watching turned pale and trembled.

Just as their bodies were about to crash, the mana board’s magic stopped them in midair at the last possible moment.

“If you couldn’t reduce casting time, you would have been half-crippled from falling with an acceleration spell.”

Of course, injuries sustained during lectures qualify for educational injury compensation, so you can receive free treatment at the infirmary.

The professor’s non-comforting words weren’t reassuring at all.

It sounded more like a threat that he really could make them half-crippled if he wanted to!

“Sob sob sob. I hate this now.”

“Please forgive us… waaah.”

“Oh my gooood… why did I take this class…”

The three students floated up into the air again.

Having realized that this process was educational correction of wrong answers through physical experience, the students held their breath in tension.

Spike magic appeared densely below the ground.

“I’ll cast a protective barrier.”

Suddenly, as if the professor had made a mistake, the three students fell in different directions.

Due to the deployment characteristics of barriers, the wider the range, the longer the casting time.

Moreover, this wasn’t centered on himself but had to be cast simultaneously on three falling targets.

The students’ eyes filled with horror.

“No!”

“Oh my god.”

“I… I can’t watch this.”

Students screamed or turned away, anticipating a horrific accident.

The sound of something being impaled on spikes echoed through the classroom.

“Open your eyes.”

Above the bed of spikes, the three wrong-answerers were protected by barriers, each having fallen in a different direction.

“If target specification were impossible, I couldn’t have saved all three simultaneously. Understand?”

The second-years nodded frantically while crying.

Even among the other students watching from their seats, sniffling could be heard.

Lessons learned in fear are never forgotten.

At the very least, the possibility of mana boards was clearly imprinted in the minds of the wrong-answerers.

Of course, if they couldn’t overcome this moment of fear, the memory might become a trauma, causing hesitation whenever they cast magic in the future.

They might show even slower, more timid, and more pathetic performances than now.

Professor Pythagoras thought that was fine too.

If they were going to drop out at this level, it would be better for them to give up sooner rather than later.

In the world of magic where talent is everything, those lacking willpower could never survive.

“Oknodie. I’m scared here…”

“Why? The professor is kind and nice. If you don’t know something, you should learn it physically.”

What extreme reactions from these novices.

A sheep and a wolf.

One typical first-year and one not so typical.

Professor Pythagoras became curious about that bold first-year’s capabilities.

“Novices. Try to guess the reason.”

“Is that allowed?”

Not ‘please spare me’ or ‘I don’t know,’ but ‘is that allowed?’

Even her boldness was appealing.

“It is.”

“What will you give me if I do?”

“Extra credit. But if you fail, you’ll learn physically like the second-years did.”

“I’ll do it!”

The girl with a ribbon headband that suited her well.

Oknodie answered confidently.

“The reason mana board usage has poor cost-effectiveness is because the amount and depth of knowledge required is overwhelmingly greater than for regular magicians! Unless you completely understand the principles or study extensively, the efficiency is terrible!”

The professor asked.

“Do you think that’s correct?”

“Yep!”

“That is correct. I’ll give you extra credit.”

Titosoga, sitting next to Oknodie, sighed in relief more dramatically than Oknodie herself, placing a hand on his chest.

“Hey, are you crazy? Next time just say you don’t know. The professor doesn’t half-kill those who admit their ignorance.”

“But I knew the answer to this question.”

The whispered conversation between Bigstone and Oknodie was, of course, fully audible to the professor.

“That’s right, Bigstone. Why is ignorance forgiven when wrong answers are not?”

“I-I don’t know, sir.”

“You stick to your words well. The three wrong-answerers from earlier. Come forward and hold the mana boards.”

The three wrong-answerers walked forward with trembling legs.

“Do you know the 3rd-tier spell <Strength>?”

All three quickly said they didn’t know.

The professor gave them an answer that stabbed their hearts with despair.

“Then I’ll let you learn. Hold the mana boards and use Strength. For idiots who don’t even know what the spell is, let me tell you it’s an enhancement spell that increases physical strength.”

A buff-type enhancement spell that alters the body’s condition.

Strength.

The 3rd-tier spell unfolded through the three students’ mana boards.

Neither a high-tier spell nor quite a low-tier spell, but a tricky one in between.

One student’s mana board emitted light but nothing happened.

The spell structure was so chaotic that there wasn’t even a hint of the spell being implemented.

He was actually the lucky one.

A curly-haired female student who managed to activate the spell turned rapidly pale.

The spell structure barely formed an activation state, but mana leaking from incorrect formulas in between drastically increased the required mana.

The female student who barely completed the spell activation collapsed, gasping for breath as if exhausted.

The last student formed a strange structure based on incorrect knowledge, but it did form a structurally complete form.

Strength was definitely activated.

Instead of evenly increasing strength throughout the body, it concentrated power only in one forearm, causing the muscles to suddenly swell and creating a cramping sensation that made him grab his arm, scream, and roll on the floor in agony.

“Spell implementation failure. Increased mana consumption. Incorrect manifestation. This is the ‘price of ignorance’ that magic users face when they ignore their lack of knowledge and attempt to use magic.”

In the harsh world of magic users, attempts to guess blindly or gloss over with talent were not tolerated.

“Memorize this. These are the theories, formulas, and modification formulas needed for the spell you’ll use today.”

With one gesture from the professor, printouts of about 30 pages per person landed on everyone’s desks.

It wasn’t the professor who directly sent them, but his assistant who followed him like a limb, using a mana board instead.

The second-years desperately studied the printouts, while Titosoga muttered “Tricked again” and flipped through the pages with a gloomy face as if he’d received a death sentence.

In the classroom filled with the busy sound of turning pages, one student caught Professor Pythagoras’s eye.

“Are you that relaxed?”

Instead of looking through the pages, Oknodie was playing by folding the printout into a paper airplane.

Even faced with the weight of theory and knowledge that would make talented magicians run away, Oknodie showed no fear or irritation.

“I already know all this!”

3rd-tier spell Strength.

The first-year’s bold confidence in the spell that had just sunk three second-year seniors seemed very peculiar.

For a magician who hasn’t trained their body, using Strength has poor efficiency.

Applying a 1.2x multiplier to a strength of 10 versus applying the same multiplier to a strength of 30 is completely different.

That’s why most magicians, including magic users, avoid the Strength spell.

A spell with very little chance of accumulating knowledge.

However, in practical situations, using enhancement spells to support allies is far more beneficial than trying to use attack spells with quick calculations and perfect theory.

A spell everyone hates to learn but would never regret knowing.

How could he not be interested in this barely 130cm tall novice who showed interest in such a “useless” spell?

“Try it. If you succeed, you may leave today’s lecture. We’ll measure by the score change on the punching machine.”

“If I hit softly at first and then harder later, I wouldn’t need to cast the spell, right?”

“If you think you can deceive me, try. If you’re caught, you’ll suffer worse than your seniors did.”

At the professor’s threat, Oknodie observed Professor Pythagoras intently, as if measuring something.

“Hmm… impossible! I’ll do it honestly.”

Oknodie hit the punching machine.

The mana field inside the machine was broken through 47 layers at once.

An incredible number that made last year’s second-year magicians’ average of 22 layers seem ridiculous.

“…Strength has definitely been dispelled.”

“That was my normal punch without magic.”

After her mana board emitted light, Oknodie hit the punching machine again.

The mana field was broken through 58 layers at once.

“Excellent. You may leave now.”

“Can I stay and watch what Titosoga does?”

“By all means.”

Encouraged second-year seniors quietly lined up in front of the punching machine.

“For reference, if you want to finish the lecture early and leave, you must break the highest record just set.”

All the second-years, including Titosoga and Bigstone, looked at Oknodie with faces that said “that’s too much” after hearing this thunderbolt of news.