episode_0055

Chapter 55 – End-of-Term Evaluation

The end-of-term evaluations had already entered their third day.

The opponent for my second match was a male student named Walter, who was ranked in the middle.

The guy, who used a halberd, repeatedly struck the back of my arm and spewed curses.

“Fall! Just fall down already!!”

“Would you fall if you were me?”

Of course, I didn’t budge.

There was no way I would fall to someone who didn’t have Alisa’s speed, nor the attack power to break through my defense.

On the contrary, his breathing was ragged from pouring out excessive attacks, to the point where I could win if I really put my mind to it.

In the end, five minutes passed without either of us gaining any significant advantage, and the match concluded in a draw.

“Damn it! If I had just won this match, I could have been promoted!”

Walter, seemingly disappointed, kept stomping his feet.

Since the end-of-term evaluation matches are completely random, there are already students who have finished their last match.

This raises a question.

Specifically, it’s the issue of fairness between those whose matches were concentrated earlier and those whose were concentrated later.

While there had indeed been controversies related to this, the academy’s stance remained firm.

The academy stated that it was an institution for nurturing talent for a new era, and to do so, it must provide experiences akin to real combat.

They also added that the world isn’t fair and doesn’t wait for anyone, so when a crisis strikes, one must judge for themselves and find a breakthrough.

They even went so far as to tell those who still protested to simply not come if they didn’t like it.

In the end, it’s a well-known fact that this incident revealed the academy’s pure meritocracy, which paradoxically led to an increase in new student admissions.

Anyway, what I want to say is that I still have one match left.

‘I wish it would end soon.’

Aside from being boring, knowing that the Dark Cult’s movements had changed due to the incident during practical training made me anxious about what might happen.

Even though they had strengthened security further, learning from the previous incident at the academy, it was bound to be breached eventually.

Even in the game, the academy wasn’t just stupidly letting itself be continuously attacked.

‘Sigh, I should go train.’

What’s going to happen will happen, regardless of how much I worry.

I let go of my lingering thoughts, left the gymnasium, and headed to the underground training room in the cafeteria, as I had been doing for the past few weeks.

As I stepped onto the circular platform in the center, the walls glowed brightly, and mana bullets were fired.

Bang! Rat-a-tat-tat!

I stared at the mana bullets, and the moment they entered the area, without stepping off the circle, I swung my fist at the opportune moment, batting them away.

Since starting this training, my Perception stat has grown quite a bit, so I can do this much with ease now.

But the mana bullets grew increasingly numerous.

Finally, when they reached a level my dynamic vision and movements couldn’t keep up with.

“Fuck, this isn’t going to work!”

I stepped off the circle.

Handling all these attacks within a limited space was still beyond my capabilities.

Moving quickly by employing the footwork of the Shadowless Step, which I learned from Cain, I tried my best to endure by making the mana bullets self-destruct upon collision.

As I kept enduring, the moment the mana bullets increased to a total of 1024, my defense crumbled.

*Thump-thump-thump!*

“Aaaargh!”

With pain piercing to my very bones, I screamed but still moved swiftly.

Utilizing the method of taking hits to minimize pain, which I’d learned since my transmigration, I absorbed as much impact as possible and batted away the mana bullets to endure a little longer.

But these sneaky bastards, as if they had brains, cunningly exploited my openings.

While showering my entire body with mana bullets, they would sometimes suddenly land ten consecutive hits on my side.

If I allowed all of them, it would be over.

No matter how much my toughness had been trained, I’d have no choice but to kneel.

This time, I succeeded in predicting and blocking it, but the next attack was the problem. This time, they concentrated their aim on the back of my neck and my groin.

“These devilish bastards!”

Am I going crazy?

To be engaging in psychological warfare with mana bullets that didn’t even have a speck of intelligence!

Doubting the unbelievable reality, I still strained to read the mana bullets’ intentions.

But I didn’t know.

That these mana bullets weren’t controlled by an overarching system, but were individual entities with their own wills.

As I was about to bat away a mana bullet aiming for my groin, I ended up exposing my side to another mana bullet that cut in.

*Thwack!*

And once one cut in, the rest of them swarmed in and followed suit.

*Thwack-thwack-thwack!*

“Kuaaak!”

Under the impact delivered in the blink of an eye, I ultimately fell to my knees.

And before the follow-up strikes could land, I swiftly transmitted mana through my foot to the floor, deactivating the magic circle.

The mana bullets that had reached just in front of my groin scattered by a hair’s breadth.

“Haaah… Hah! I almost died.”

My dick is a treasure I wouldn’t trade for anything.

If I became impotent, I wouldn’t be able to rape, and then I wouldn’t be able to use my unique ability, which, while stupid-sounding, is extremely powerful.

“I need to talk to Cain.”

Everything else is fine, but at least do something about them aiming for the groin.

Even if Cain is a ruthless and merciless cold-blooded man, as a fellow man, he wouldn’t be able to ignore such a request.

I lay on the floor, catching my breath, and checked my status window.

*

Ruan Friuli

Level – 99 (+12)

Strength: 109 (+10)

Stamina: 103 (+6)

Durability: 99 (+10)

Perception: 87 (+19)

Mana: 77 (+10)

*

“Hmph─ Just as I thought, it’s not going up.”

My growth has currently stagnated.

I had expected it, but it seems I can’t reach level 100 until I attain enlightenment.

“Just how do you attain enlightenment?”

In the game, I didn’t know because it was just glossed over with vague phrases like “just hunt monsters and you’ll naturally gain enlightenment,” but now that it’s reality, it’s such a headache.

Even when I asked Cain, he just said that if I consistently trained, the time would naturally come, offering no other advice.

It’s probably because it’s truly an element that cannot be arbitrarily accelerated.

“Haaah… Guess there’s nothing I can do.”

Venting my frustration won’t change anything.

Rather, it was probably correct to see my growth until now as having been too rapid.

Now that the end-of-term evaluations are almost over, it will be vacation, so I should set my goal to diligently train and reach level 100 during that time.

Of course, if I worked like crazy during the vacation and still had no results, then I’d really be screwed.

“That won’t happen.”

It won’t. …Probably.

*

June 27th. Afternoon.

With not much time left until the end-of-term evaluations concluded, a big match took place.

It was a match between Skadia, the undisputed first-place student of the year, and Deborah, who was ranked third and was the disciple of the famous Grey Magic Tower Lord, Roxana Sprause.

Currently, the gymnasium was packed with countless people, forming a human sea with no room to even set foot.

My companions and I carefully made our way to the spots we had picked out in advance, being careful not to get swept away by the crowd, and looked down at the match arena.

Abel looked at Skadia and Deborah, who stood facing each other, and asked.

“Who do you think will win?”

“Hmm? Wouldn’t the year’s top student win? I heard she reached the 5th tier last time?”

Most of them nodded at Yas’s words.

However, Uni, who was also a mage, offered a slightly different opinion.

“Still, just because someone’s tier is higher doesn’t guarantee a win. Especially with illusion magic, it’s easy to create variables. And since she’s the disciple of Roxana Sprause-nim, don’t you think she might have a hidden move? What do you think, Alisa?”

“…Skadia Maryland will win.”

“Could you tell us why?”

“It’s true that illusion magic can create variables. But if you’re prepared for it, its effectiveness drops significantly. Of course, a high-tier spell might be unavoidable even with preparation, but Deborah is only 4th tier. Plus, a trump card? There’s no way she’d use something like that in a mere match like this. She might need it to save her life someday.”

“I see… That certainly makes sense.”

I watched Alisa and Uni discuss, and indifferently picked my ear.

‘There was no trump card like that.’

If calling her Master-nim was a trump card, then it might be one, but she couldn’t win against Skadia with that.

In the first place, calling her would be a disqualification.

In the end, it meant that victory firmly belonged to Skadia. Perhaps this was the thought of not just us, but the majority of people, as murmuring began to spread.

“Skadia Maryland will win, right?”

“Of course! Her reputation as a genius has been widespread since she was little.”

“Indeed, there hasn’t been much talk about the Grey Magic Tower Lord’s disciple. Isn’t she actually nothing special?”

Everyone is lenient with themselves and strict with others. The spectators, moving beyond the simple outcome of the match, began to spread and amplify rumors about Deborah personally.

I worried if the timid Deborah might get hurt.

‘Hang in there.’

I inwardly cheered her on, then stretched out my leg and kicked the butts of two guys.

*Thwack!*

“Ugh, ugh!”

“W-what?! Which crazy bastard…!”

The guys, who staggered for a moment, turned around with bloodshot eyes and met my gaze.

“R-Ruan Friuli?”

“Why us…?”

There were many students from other grades watching in the gymnasium, but the majority were still first-years.

And among the first-years, there was no one who didn’t know about me.

“You goddamn bastards. It’s loud, so let’s keep it down.”

“What? B-but besides us…”

“Hey, hey! Don’t argue with him. Let’s just go.”

“Ah, why are you doing this?! What I said is right!”

“I said let’s just go! Nothing good comes from opposing him.”

The one flaring up and the one trying to stop him. Their squabble was simply amusing to me.

‘What are you going to do if you don’t go?’

These guys, merely the sons of a Baron or Viscount, would get a bad impression from high-ranking nobles if they dared to challenge the eldest son of a Marquisate.

It wouldn’t change even if that eldest son was a scoundrel of the century and half-abandoned.

In the end, even the guy who was talking as if he was about to start a fight there would probably just shrivel up without much resistance if he truly faced me.

What if he couldn’t control his anger and swung a fist?

Then that would be a problem in itself. His life afterward would become very arduous.

I snorted, then tried to refocus on the match arena, but feeling a persistent gaze, I turned my head.

Alisa was watching me.

One corner of her mouth slowly curled upwards.

-So dedicated, aren’t we? Is she your next target, perhaps? Building up favor in advance to rape her when the opportunity arises?

Alisa invariably connected all my actions to rape.

The problem was that I had already raped Deborah.

‘I can absolutely never say this.’

If Alisa found out that I had raped Deborah too, she would obviously immediately tell Roxana with glee.

Given Roxana’s influence, she could beat me to death without question, so if I wanted to live, I had to keep it an absolute secret.

I averted Alisa’s gaze.

[Match Start!]

And simultaneously, Skadia and Deborah’s match began.