Chapter 76
As expected, the combat ability test involved fighting monsters.
It was obvious. I had been waiting for this.
Our task, which had risen from the ground, was a stone golem that looked much like a giant.
A blunt torso and limbs made of earth and stone. It was obviously slow. An opponent like this would be simple.
With my most powerful skill, 「Overcharged Fireball」, I could blow it to pieces.
Fwoosh!
“Fireball!”
I pre-cast the spell and created a blazing sphere of flame in my palm.
“Wait, Dekal!”
Stia stopped me.
“Why?”
“If you use fire magic, there’s a chance our allies could get hurt.”
Now that I looked, several male candidates were drawing their weapons and confronting the golem, apparently trying to show off how brave they were.
Damn it! If they had just stayed behind us, this would have ended in one hit. Instead, they were getting in the way!
It couldn’t be helped. I drastically reduced the power of my fireball.
“Fire Arrow!”
Just as when I had been with Karen, I carefully adjusted its power and slammed the fire arrow into the stone golem!
The fire arrow, created in the blink of an eye, made the stone golem stagger.
“This works, right?”
“That’s reassuring.”
Stia smiled brightly.
“I’ll create an opening for you to land a stronger spell. Dekal, can you match my pace?”
“Sure. I’ll support you!”
Stia and I charged forward together.
“Attack its legs first!”
While encouraging the struggling candidates, Stia attacked the stone golem’s thick legs with rapid thrusts from her slender sword.
I had worried for a moment whether she would be all right with such a thin, needle-like blade.
Stia’s thrusts struck with a heavy impact like cannon fire and shoved the golem backward.
“Whoa!”
The other candidates exclaimed in admiration and gathered around Stia.
“Now! Attack!”
Stia naturally became their leader, and continued piling damage onto the golem’s legs.
“Fire Arrow!”
I watched the movement of the golem’s arm and fired a Fire Arrow to keep it in check.
But I had only slowed its attack slightly; I hadn’t stopped it completely. I watched the situation from behind, then shouted.
“Fall back!”
“Stop!”
Stia personally held the candidates back so they wouldn’t enter the stone golem’s attack range, then retreated with them.
The stone golem’s arm swings were slow, making them easy to avoid, but their power was not something to underestimate.
While everyone was cowed by the golem’s tremendous presence, Stia resumed her attack.
“This time, from the side!”
The golem’s leg, which Stia had been steadily damaging, had almost entirely lost its thick stone shell, and soft earth was leaking out as if the inside had sprung a leak.
Following Stia’s orders, everyone attacked the golem together.
“Sh-should we go too?”
“Yeah!”
Even the students who had hung back because they lacked confidence in combat picked up their weapons and gathered around, wanting to make a contribution.
That was when the accident happened.
The golem counterattacked one beat faster than expected, and one of the already-unsteady girls fell flat on the ground.
“Aah!”
“!”
The only person in a position to help her… Damn it, that was me!
“It’s dangerous!”
“Run!”
I used Spatial Leap to appear in front of the girl who had twisted her ankle and blocked the stone golem’s fist with a spirit shield.
Thud…!!
“Urgh…!”
This was no joke.
My spirit had grown tremendously as well, but that blow was just as powerful as Sin Wolf’s swipe.
“Th-thank you.”
“Get up!”
“Did you see that just now?”
“Where did he suddenly come from?”
“Ah…!”
The girl tried to stand, but seemed to have injured the ligaments in her ankle and couldn’t move from the spot.
My shield had almost worn away, so blocking a second blow would be impossible. What should I do?
“Dekal!”
At that moment, Stia surged forward.
Her powerful thrust shattered the golem’s leg, and the golem’s body tilted to the side as the destroyed leg gave way.
“Isn’t this our chance?”
“Let’s all attack it together!”
“Fall back! The mage’s spell is coming!”
Stia shouted at the candidates standing awkwardly around.
The candidates hurriedly retreated.
Good. I had been waiting for this.
“Fireball.”
“Ugh!”
“It’s hot!”
I cast Fireball with a pre-incantation, creating a sphere of flame above my palm.
The Fireball began overcharging under the power of the 〈Focusing Bracelet〉 and started sucking in my MP like mad. Soon, it was growing large enough to swallow my entire upper body.
“Th-that’s a Fireball?”
“Aagh! I can’t open my eyes because of the heat!”
I checked to make sure everyone was maintaining a safe distance.
Worried that the girl behind me might be roasted whole, I spread the wind into a thin membrane, just as Isti had blocked Tilia’s flames, preventing the heat from leaking backward.
For something I had done on the spur of the moment, it perfectly protected the girl from the heat.
“……”
Since I had already incanted the spell while casting it, I silently pointed at the golem.
Whoosh!
The sphere of flame, which had devoured both my MP and the surrounding air, struck the stone golem head-on.
Bang!
A cloud of dust erupted and obscured everything.
The intense blast pressure produced when the Fireball exploded pounded against my body.
The stone golem was destroyed beyond recognition, while at the same time melting and glowing red-hot under the searing heat.
All that remained was dust.
Yes, this was how magic was supposed to be.
It had been immensely satisfying to slam it home so decisively.
“Amazing…!”
“Do you have to be able to do something like that to take on emergency missions?”
The candidates talked excitedly about me without even trying to hide their enthusiasm.
This feels good.
Stia approached me.
“Dekal!”
“Stia. Nice play.”
We exchanged another friendly handshake.
The reason I had been able to stand out was largely thanks to Stia, who had set everything up perfectly.
“That was incredible magic, Dekal.”
Stia smiled as she gripped my hand firmly.
“Your swordsmanship was impressive too.”
“You have a discerning eye. It’s the swordsmanship of the Harpe family. It’s highly effective for subduing enemies.”
“Family…”
So she was from some family or other as well.
“You’re an adventurer by origin, right, Dekal? Don’t worry. I don’t judge people by their background.”
So, we could become good friends…?
“Yeah. I look forward to working with you.”
The bespectacled woman who had guided us through the testing grounds appeared again.
“Thank you for your hard work. I’ll guide you to the next hall.”
The black barrier on the wall disappeared, and a door I hadn’t seen before appeared in its place.
The bespectacled woman opened the door and led the way.
We were guided to a waiting room filled with prepared chairs.
“We will take a break of ten to twenty minutes here before proceeding with the next test. Please wait in your seats.”
After saying that, the bespectacled woman returned the way we had come.
It was the next group’s turn to take the combat ability test.
Karen will do well, right?
As soon as I sat down, I missed the cunt’s breasts. My hands were bored.
What was Stia doing?
“That was amazing swordsmanship.”
“Stia, we saw how well you did. You were incredible.”
Stia was surrounded by the candidates, chatting with them.
Quite a few of the men were lamenting that they should have done this or that earlier.
Just then, a cute female student in a Melbrit uniform cautiously approached me.
“Um, thank you. If you hadn’t saved me earlier…”
“Don’t worry about it.”
In the end, that incident would improve their evaluation of me.
This idiot would probably be disqualified.
I didn’t even spare her a glance.
“……”
But she hesitated instead of leaving, so I lifted my head and asked.
“What?”
“Please tell me your name.”
“Dekal.”
“So you’re Dekal. I, I’m…”
What a nuisance.
I snapped my fingers.
“……”
“When you wake up, secretly suck my cock.”
Clap.
When I clapped my hands, the girl sat down beside me.
“Excuse me.”
She took off her blazer and draped it over my thighs, then slipped underneath it and began sucking my cock.
It was an awkward blowjob, but it felt good enough.
“Slurp. Suck. Smack.”
I received a blowjob from a girl whose name I didn’t even know.
At least it kept me from getting bored while waiting for the next test.
Perhaps she was getting used to it, because she gradually began using her tongue and lips more enthusiastically as she sucked my cock.
“Hngh. Hoo… mmph.”
She sucked diligently for about five minutes, but her stimulation gradually weakened, as though her jaw was beginning to tire.
I gripped the girl’s head tightly through the coat and forced my cock down to her throat.
“Ugh! Gk! Glk!”
Ignoring her attempts to push me away with her arms, I shot my semen into the girl’s throat.
Ah… This was good too.
“Dekal? What are you doing?”
Stia approached me.
Then she saw the female student with her face buried in my lower half and asked curiously.
“Who is this?”
The female student lifted her head to breathe, keeping her coat over me so my dick wouldn’t be exposed. When she suddenly noticed Stia and flinched, she gulped down the semen filling her mouth.
“I-I dropped something on the floor……”
“……?”
The female student covered her mouth with one hand and hurried away as if fleeing.
Uh. Were her legs all right?
“Mind if I sit beside you, Dekal?”
“Sure.”
I remained still with my cock exposed—though it was covered by the blazer coat—and did nothing.
If I fidgeted, she’d only find me suspicious.
Just act natural, as though nothing had happened.
“Ah…! That person just now was the female student Dekal rescued, wasn’t she? Was I being insensitive?”
“No, it was already over.”
She’d already come in my mouth, and I had no regrets.
“Stia. You seem to be highly respected among the applicants.”
“I wouldn’t say I’m that respected. I simply stood out a little.”
How modest.
At first, I’d wondered what kind of rude bitch she was, but the more I got to know her, the more I realized Stia was a decent person.
She had something in common with Karen. Their pure passion for something was one such similarity.
“The next test should be written, but honestly, I’m not confident about the theory…….”
What? A theory test?
“……What a coincidence. I’m not confident either.”
Damn it.
Let’s hope I scored absurdly high on the combat ability test.
Thanks to the Goddess’s Apostle skill, I wasn’t illiterate, but there was no way I could solve questions on the theories of another world.
“Hehe. We’re both the same, then. But if it’s you, Dekal, I’m sure you’ll pass. I hope we can become candidates together.”
That tickled.
I could tell just from her sweet voice. Stia was openly expressing her interest in me.
How highly did she think of me?
My performance in the combat ability test seemed to have left quite an impression on her.
Honestly, I was a little flustered.
To think I’d form such a connection right after enrolling. Since Aselin, I hadn’t used hypnosis even once, and this was the first time things had gone this smoothly.
It was almost too perfect.
No, it had to be a coincidence.
Without hypnosis, this was probably as far as things would go. There was no way another incident would occur after even more coincidences piled up today.
Besides, I didn’t even know whether Stia’s interest in me was romantic or not.
Aaargh.
Why was I, a hypnotist, worrying about things like this?
I could just hypnotize her right now…….
“Ah.”
Stia noticed the blazer coat covering my thighs and reached out.
“I’ll give this to that female student.”
“……!”
Stia grasped the raised part beneath the blazer coat.
It was my dick, still freshly spent.
I flinched at the unexpected touch, and my thigh trembled.
“Hmm? What on earth is this……?”
Stia kneaded my cock, puzzled by the unfamiliar sensation, then suddenly sucked in a sharp breath as if she had realized something.
“I-I’m sorry…!”
She yanked her hand away as though she had touched something hot and been burned, then stood there at a loss.
“I-I, I mean, I didn’t, I didn’t do it on purpose…!”
Perhaps she overloaded while trying to figure out how to deal with the situation, because Stia abruptly stood up, holding the blazer coat the female student had left behind.
“I’ll take this to her!”
Her ears bright red, Stia chose a strategic retreat and dashed away.
She didn’t realize I’d had my dick out, did she?
……She probably just thought she had grabbed my penis through my pants.
I pulled my pants back on properly before anyone could see and chuckled in disbelief.
Strange things really did happen sometimes.
Soon, the woman with glasses returned.
It seemed our break was over.
“I’ll guide you to the next test hall. Everyone, please gather around.”
I glanced toward the other side of the corridor, where the woman with glasses had come from.
I wanted to see whether Karen was in the next group, but it seemed they hadn’t finished yet.
We followed the woman with glasses and moved somewhere else once more.
“…….”
When Stia’s eyes met mine, she awkwardly looked away and hurried off.
It seemed she needed more time to pretend nothing had happened.
Her shyness was incredibly cute.
Fortunately, the written test proceeded indoors in the ordinary manner, just as I remembered.