Glan Natural Science Academy

Ryger took a deep breath, having finally made up his mind. To the normal eyes, perhaps the current Ryger looked to be mysterious, noble and strong because of his identity as a magician, but Ryger himself was clearly cognizant he was nothing more than an initiate student who had only come into contact with academia not long ago. His actual strength was probably even weaker than a fit hunter.

But since Ryger was so, it also signified that those who similarly were first-year students like Ryger were also nothing more than inexperienced initiate students. Even if these Sealand Natural Sciences Academy students far surpassed him in terms of study length and actual combat experience, their nature of existence was still that of an initiate student; there were still level-zero organisms – organisms that could be killed by normal wild beasts. Under their seemingly strong façade, there must be some sort of weak points, deficiencies and shortcomings.

“If it really is dynamic vision, then perhaps… I am her natural enemy!”

Just as how the elements in nature’s food chain acted together and against each other, there also existed such reinforcement and counteraction between scholars with different academic skills. There was no eternal strength, and Ryger who possessed Air Bubble was the natural enemy of the girl’s dynamic vision.

“Uncle Logic, leave this girl student to me!”

Logic, whose mind was in shambles because of his deep worries over the Heart Method and the fight, was stunned and turned towards Ryger who had put on a serious expression.

Could it be this employer of his has some hidden strength?

Although Logic had a bone-deep hatred for the Sealand Principality because of his experiences while young, he was now a veteran mercenary who had lived past a large portion of his life. And while he no longer possessed the power he had when he was at his peak due to his increasing age, his absolute strength in a life-or-death fight was not at all weaker than Lulu. He was merely more open in matters because of his rich life experience. This was, after all, only a mission to be muddled through. There was no need to go all out and risk his life.

“Mhm,” muttered Logic.

“Alright, I’ll go support the girly. You be careful here,” said the old mercenary, moving towards Lulu with large steps while carrying his sword.

 

Huff….

Left alone, Ryger let out a breath of frustrations he had kept in for quite some time now. He pursed his lips, raised his read and eyed the mushroom-headed girl under the combustion totem with grave solemnity.

" "

“From today onwards, I shall be a true scholar, a magician in the eyes of people!”

Ryger muttered to himself, apparently for self-encouragement. He reached into his spacebox with his right hand and took a magic item – the spook bottle! The bottle was a gift to Ryger from Enid. For scholars out journeying, it was able to provide the function of scaring away wild beasts.

At the same time, Ryger recollected the earnest teachings Senior Brother Satro had imparted in their initiate lessons with – that one lesson when he had dissected a frog for the very first time.

“The frog’s eyes have dynamic vision and it is almost unable to detect objects at rest as its special nervous system will obscure and ignore relatively static objects. But towards objects in motion, the frogs’ dynamic vision has unimaginable advantages when it comes to swiftly determining the object’s position, speed, direction and others. It’s able to make minute levels of discernment and judgement in these areas.”

So in other words, to the mushroom girl who had dynamic vision, the slower an object moved, the harder it was for her to detect it.

Roar!

As Ryger opened the spook bottle, a hair-raising roar spread through the spacious beach. Such a change immediately caused all present to uncontrollably look over. Even Kyubey who was still struggling non-stop turned his eyes towards the source of the sound, wary of a potentially new enemy.

But what they saw was a bunch of dense, white mist enveloping Ryger.

 

“Spook bottle?”

After Violet muttered out of confusion, she paid no more attention to it and continued pursuing Stella. Just as Konan said, this place was the Glan Principality’s territory. If they stayed too long and more enemy students of the enemy nation came, then the three of them would be in danger.

 

Konan, the one closest to Ryger, frowned and habitually pushed up her black framed spectacles. Ever since she evolved herself to have dynamic vision, the world in her eyes was different than before.

The previously colourful and vibrant world was now large pieces of indistinct blocks in her dynamic vision. It was as if a beginner painter used a large brush to brush out vast swathes of colour. But because the paint was too wet, the different colours mixed with each other and there were no detailed boundaries so to speak of

Though, there were exceptions. In moments such as when Logic threw the flying knife and when Stella threw her feathers, an incongruently clear detail would finally appear in Konan’s blurry world. And centering around this detail, countless information such as weight, speed, direction, distance and so on popped into her mind. And among these details, time’s flow appeared to have slowed.

As for the moving, dashing silhouettes? It was a mirage that would be at times blurry and would at times show their shapes. Although it lasted an instant when they showed their shapes, that very instant was to dynamic vision relatively eternal. The time of the ‘details’ was extended for an extraordinary amount of time, as though it lasted for a long time.

Roar!

After Ryger opened the spook bottle, Konan similarly looked over. In her vision, there was only an additional white colour in her world of large pieces of blurry colours. But somehow, Konan could feel an inexplicable malice coming from this white colour.

A believer of leaving no stones unturned when it comes to threats, Konan stopped Wind Blade with which she was about to shoot at Kyubey, and floated it left hand while her right hand drew on the accumulated fireball from the combustion totem. She mixed the two and threw the end product, a perfect fusion of wind and fire, at that white mist.

Boom!

An astonishing explosion and the spilling flames from it blew away the white mist unleashed by the spook bottle.

Konan frowned and pushed her spectacles up forcefully, intending to use her high-index glasses to discover any differences in the blurry colours. Yet there were no signs of people in her blurry vision, which made her frown uncontrollably.

“Dead?”

This advanced academic skill formed from the fusion of the power of wind and fire was very powerful and instantly dying after being hit by it wasn’t anything strange either. As for the possibility of the enemy standing still after getting hit with her powerful strike, Konan didn’t even consider it.

“What a pity Baker and Violet aren’t here. Getting blown up by this sort of academic skill must feel miserable. Ha ha!”

She let out some cruel sympathy then looked in the direction of the black wolf bound by Baker.

" "

“Kyubey! Boo hoo.”

Lulu had already tried to cut the magic chains a few times, but this was a true-blue level-one magic item. Even if her true power was extraordinary, cutting through this level of magic equipment – even if it was controlled by the level-zero energy field of an initiate student – was not something that could be accomplished in a short amount of time.

Currently, there were quite a few wounds on Kyubey and blood had soaked his fur. Yet, all these wounds were merely superficial injuries that just about penetrated the skin and didn’t injure the muscles and bones. As a true proteus, even one that didn’t yet have a gemheart, the firmness of his fur and skin wasn’t something that could be easily overcome by normal elementary academic skills.

What Lulu was doing right now was that she was panicking because of her concern for Kyubey.

In the process of struggling, Kyubey howled furiously, having completely awakened his wild instincts. These injuries were not life threatening, sure, but then again, he had never suffered such heavy injuries in his entire life. He kept howling but just couldn’t struggle off these damned chains.

Then all of a sudden, Kyubey felt that something in his body suddenly changed. His throat got itchy, and he instinctively belched out a mouthful of foreign substance.

“Awoo? How did I cough such a large spit!”

Kyubey was shocked by himself.

Baker, in his little stone wall, jumped up furiously and even when his head hit the stone he didn’t feel pain. “Are you serious!”

A bunch of pitch-black fire was belched out from Kyubey onto the magic chain. The moment the flame touched the incomparably strong metallic chain, the sizzling sound of corrosion rang out, and the chain was disappearing swiftly.

“Metal-dissolving flame…” muttered Logic, who was rushing over to support them.

Just like how Vigour would have myriads of special abilities after training using the Heart Methods, there were also all sorts of flames with wondrous characteristics. Of them, the flame most welcomed among normal mercenaries, also the most common one for low-level mercenaries to come into contact with, was none other than the famous metal-dissolving flames of the blackfire wolves.

And it was no wonder.

They lived a dangerous life and most weapons used by them were forged from metals. And so, the blackfire wolf’s metal-dissolving flames would always be an asset. Many mercenary squads wished to have a tamed blackfire wolf.

“Shit! Violet!“

Konan, sensing danger, yelled out.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to use the fusion skill of wind and fire to attempt killing the blackfire wolf. It was that for all its power, its range was quite short and at present, the wolf was outside Konan’s range.

Violet, who was pursuing Stella, froze.

She was just about to make this slippery rat pay the price when she heard Konan’s call. She couldn’t help but turn and take a look, and she immediately cursed. She had no choice but to send the ember spirit beast back while she alone continued chasing after Stella.

Soon, the ember spirit beast and the escaped wolf were going at each other, rolling on the ground and kicking up sand.

Konan’s face was agitated and she unleashed Wind Blade non-stop, supporting Baker who was hiding in a stone wall which Lulu and Logic attacked.

However, this mushroom-headed female student evidently did not notice the true danger!

Without her noticing, tens of bubbles floated towards her from all directions…

These bubbles moved exceedingly slow, to the point where these invisible bubbles did not exist in her dynamic vision. They, like the figure that stood on the ground motionless, completely melded into the background of Konan’s blurry vision.