Chapter 42: “Imitation”I was fine with waiting for the right moment.

Leave a Comment / Level 999 / By IX

I had always thought that if the chance came to hinder that special student, it would be enough for me.

However, I never expected that the opportunity to undermine the special student would come so soon, let alone in such a convenient way.

The final exams at the Magic Academy always have different contents.

Therefore, whether one can interfere with other students during the exams depends entirely on the exam’s nature.

That’s why Muska had planned to obstruct the special student not in the most recent end-of-semester exam but rather in an exam that would be favorable to their plans.

I never imagined that this time’s exam would provide such an easy opportunity to drive the special student out of school.

There couldn’t be a more convenient exam for trampling over others.

It seems that the faculty hadn’t anticipated students sabotaging each other, as there was hardly any surveillance.

Even if someone happened to witness that scene, there would be no problem if it was attributed to an accidental slip and drop.

“It’s her fault. She got carried away, despite being a commoner…”

In the world of magicians, commoners are the lowest of the low.

Yet, despite that, they stood on the same stage as the Magic Academy and even pushed aside the noble heir and claimed the title of a special student.

There is no one more infuriating than that.

I can tolerate someone standing above me to some extent, but it’s unbearable when that person is a commoner.

Well, I won’t have to see their face ever again.

Muska smiled inwardly, feeling the push of joy, and quickened their pace.

“Shaaa!!”

However, suddenly, a large serpent sprang out from the bushes ahead.

Using detection magic, Muska calmly captured its presence and evaded the serpent’s charge with remarkable reaction speed.

Simultaneously, she used illumination magic to generate a light source and once again identified the attacking magical beast.

It was a large serpent magical beast with jet-black scales.

It appeared to be of the same species as the magical beast the special student had defeated.

From observing the battle in secret, it seemed like a magical beast that Muska could defeat without any problems. However, it wouldn’t be wise to be delayed here.

(Ignore this one too.)

Although she had been attacked by magical beasts on the way here, Muska had avoided all confrontations.

To bring the special student to the brink of despair in the final moments, she had intentionally waited for the time to pass in that place, so there was no spare time left for the exam.

The objective of the exam was to traverse the forest, so it would be best to avoid combat as much as possible.

Thinking so, as Muska tried to create distance from the large serpent, something suddenly moved from behind.

“-?!”

Feeling a trigger in their detection magic, she turned around and saw another jet-black serpent, similar to the one in front of her, looming behind.

Not only that, but she also sensed the same presence from the right and left, causing Muska to scan their surroundings.

Before she knew it, Muska found herself surrounded by over a dozen serpent magical beasts.

(Why are there so many magical beasts…!? And why couldn’t I sense them with my detection magic…!?)

Muska’s magical power level is “190,” which is relatively high compared to the average.

Therefore, the range of her detection magic is quite wide, and she should have been able to sense all the magical beasts before being surrounded.

However, her reaction was delayed this time.

Even though she should have constantly maintained her detection magic, she couldn’t sense the presence of the large serpents.

(So they have that kind of ability…!)

The principle of detection magic is to activate the magical essence and enhance one’s senses to be able to perceive the magical essence of magical beasts.

Therefore, if a magical beast has the ability to manipulate magical essence to some extent and freely control its power, it should be able to bypass detection magic.

Perhaps these large serpents belong to such a special species.

Having quickly made this conjecture, Muska drew a green wand from her back and pointed it at the large serpents, staring them down.

“It’s troublesome, but I’ll deal with you!”

Escaping unscathed from this encirclement of magical beasts is almost impossible.

If she doesn’t defeat at least a few of them to create an opening, there will be no way forward.

“[Depressing Sandstorm――Fierce Wind from the Abyss――Disperse the Desolate Landscape],” Muska chanted.

Having finished the incantation, Muska aimed the tip of the wand at the large serpents.

“[A Gust of Blade Wind, Coud Van]!”

In an instant, the minerals embedded in the wand emitted a bright light in response to the incantation.

Immediately afterward, the magic was activated, and a gust of wind blew fiercely around Muska.

The sharp wind attacked the three large serpents in front of her with a distinct sound.

It was a wind magic that attacked the opponent with sharp winds.

In addition, by using the wand as a catalyst, the power of the magic was increased.

The gem-like adornments on the tip of the wand had the effect of exciting and enhancing the properties of magical essence.

According to one theory, magical essence is attracted to light and improves one’s mood when exposed to it.

This temporarily causes the size of magical essence to expand, resulting in an increase in magical power level.

Therefore, magicians use wands adorned with gemstones as catalysts to strengthen their magic in combat.

Muska, like others, used a catalyst to enhance her magic and unleashed it upon the large serpents.

But…

“Huh…?”

The large serpents towering before her didn’t have a single scratch.

No, that’s not the main issue here.

The wind magic that should have been able to tear even a large tree to shreds couldn’t do more than slightly tear the leaves of the bushes.

(What was that wind just now? Why is the power of my magic weakening like this…?)

In that moment, Muska suddenly realized what was happening.

It was the same as “that time.”

During a mission to subdue a monster, her magic power suddenly plummeted during the battle, rendering her unable to defeat the creature.

As a result, she was unable to complete the mission and had the special student take care of it instead.

Realizing the abnormality of the situation, Muska also considered a possibility.

“Could it be that my magical essence is diminishing…?”

To put it simply, her magical power level might be decreasing.

Come to think of it, not only the wind magic but also the detection magic she had used before seemed off.

She initially thought that the large serpents possessed the ability to bypass her detection magic, but in reality, her own detection magic wasn’t functioning properly, preventing her from noticing the creatures’ approach.

If that were the case, everything would make sense.

However, the reason why her magical essence was diminishing remained unknown…

Muska shivered as they looked at the current situation she found herself in.

“What… should I do…”

Surrounded by over a dozen serpent magical beasts while her magical power was restricted.

No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t imagine escaping from this situation.

The voices and scent of the serpents reached her from all directions, causing her entire body to tremble involuntarily.

“Someone… help me…!”

Muska could only watch, tears streaming down her face.

“[Frozen Land Niflheim]!”

In an instant, the surroundings were filled with cold air.

“Eh…?”

The serpents that were about to pounce on Muska were frozen in place.

Bound by the ice emanating from the ground, they were completely immobilized.

Surrounded by frozen snake statues and the cold air, Muska, breathing out white mist, caught sight of a faint light beyond the darkness.

Emerging from there was a slender female student with long blue hair—Miltieyu Grasse.

“W-Why are you here?” Muska stammered.

This special student was the one Muska had just kicked out earlier.

She had broken the provided compass, making it difficult to continue the exam. So how did she already manage to arrive here?

After leaving Miltieyu behind, Muska had been running straight toward the destination.

Despite that, she couldn’t help but question how this special student had caught up to her already.

Just as she was thinking about it, Miltieyu, who had crossed the frozen serpent statues, revealed a simple explanation.

“I followed after you.”

“Huh?”

“Even if I didn’t know the exact location of the target point, I thought that if I followed your path toward it, I would eventually reach the target point as well.”

It was an obvious reasoning that didn’t need to be stated.

However, Muska was well aware of that, which is why she had been trying to avoid being followed and had been using the darkness to make her way to the target point.

So why was this special student able to catch up to this place?

As a precaution, Muska had even used body enhancement magic to speed up and had tried to avoid combat with the magical beasts as much as possible to get this far.

Just as they contemplated this, Muska suddenly realized something.

“Detection… magic.”

“Well, covering the entire forest is impossible, but with my magical power level, I can easily cover about half of it.”

Detection magic allowed one to activate their magical essence and sharpen their senses. It enabled them to perceive the magical essence of the surrounding magical beasts, and the range expanded based on their magical power level.

While a regular magician could expand the range to about a radius of a hundred meters, someone like Miltieyu, with an exceptional magical power level, could cover an even wider range. And a skilled magician could manipulate the range of detection magic freely. Thus, Miltieyu probably had her back turned to the forest’s entrance and concentrated and expanded her detection range forward.

With that, she might be able to cover almost half of the forest.

By using detection magic to perceive the movement of the magical beasts, she had followed their trail.

Muska could understand up to that point.

However, there was one thing she couldn’t understand.

“Why did you help me?”

Muska had spread rumors about Miltieyu throughout the academy just out of spite. And in the end, she had even tried to obstruct her exam to force her to drop out.

She should have despised Muska to the point where it was unbearable.

She could have just abandoned her like that.

And yet…

“Why did you…”

As Muska suffered from her lack of understanding, Miltieyu’s youthful face formed a warm smile that brushed away the coldness.

“Because if you were the person I idolized, you would have done the same.”

“…”

Miltieyu sent a sincere gaze, but in the depths of her eyes, it felt as if she was looking at a completely different person.