Episode 13. Out of Mana
Time flew like an arrow, and exactly one week had passed since Binaeril began taking special lessons.
It was the day of the monster subjugation practical, one of Elfenbein’s major events.
Over that period, Binaeril had undergone no small amount of change.
His shoulders had broadened slightly, he had put on some muscle, and his stamina was incomparable to before.
“Urggh…!”
Binaeril, trying to rise from bed, failed to achieve his goal.
He could feel every muscle in his body screaming.
Dean Yulio, who had ordered such a grueling training regimen, was a problem in his own right, but the real demon was someone else entirely.
Silvia genuinely delighted in Binaeril’s suffering.
‘Already sore? What a weakling of a man.’
‘How do you plan to help Lady Rike with such pathetic stamina?’
The word “moderation” did not exist in her dictionary.
If his lower body gave out, she worked his upper body; if his upper body gave out, she worked his lower body. The level of torment was enough to put professionals to shame.
But if he was late for the practical session, all that training would be worth less than broth.
Swallowing his dizzying muscle pain, Binaeril headed to the departure point.
Fortunately, the others were still gathered and had yet to leave. It seemed there were a few students even later than him.
“Anyone who hasn’t shown up by now is marked absent.”
Binaeril made it just in time.
“That was close.”
—Then you should move faster.
‘You didn’t even wake me up.’
—I am your master and your contractor. Do I have to play nanny too?
Just then, familiar faces approached.
“Good morning, Binaeril.”
“Why are you so late?”
It was Rike and Silvia. As always, the two were stuck together like one body.
Thanks to the week of training, Binaeril and the two girls had grown quite close.
None of the three were particularly outgoing, so before long they had started looking after one another like close friends.
“They say they’re starting the group assignments now. Let’s hurry over too.”
The monster subjugation practical was conducted in pairs. Because partners were selected randomly, a certain amount of luck was needed to get good results.
If someone like Gillian became your partner, you wouldn’t be able to accomplish a thing.
“Come to think of it.”
“What happened to Gillian? I haven’t seen him around lately.”
“Right?”
“Ahem, ahem.”
Silvia let out an awkward cough.
“What’s wrong with you?”
While the three were chatting idly, the group lottery results came out.
The student who would be subjugating monsters with Binaeril was…….
“Oh my. Binaeril, we’re in the same group.”
It was Princess Rike.
“Why you and not me!”
Silvia let out a shriek filled with rage. She had quite the obsession with Rike.
Binaeril did his utmost to avoid meeting Silvia’s gaze.
How was he supposed to know? It wasn’t as if he had chosen this…….
The monster subjugation practical was held only once a semester, and it was one of the few opportunities for students to experience real combat.
Elfenbein’s purpose was to raise mages. And the reason mages existed was to hunt monsters.
In light of this, the subjugation practical could be seen as the event most aligned with Elfenbein’s original purpose.
The location for the practical was north of Elfenbein, a place commonly known as the Magic Forest.
The Magic Forest was a vast and dense woodland stretching across Barbaroana, the barren northern land.
Places with frequent human traffic, like cities, castles, and highways, were relatively safe from monsters thanks to periodic subjugations, while undeveloped areas like borderlands, forests, remote regions, and plains were constantly exposed to monster threats.
Not that the Tower was sending students to their deaths. The practical took place at the forest’s entrance.
For the sake of the students’ experience, the instructors and supervisors intervened as little as possible.
Unless a truly dangerous monster appeared, they wouldn’t help with anything.
Monster detection, tracking, and hunting were all tasks the students had to handle themselves.
And Team Binaeril and Rike were progressing smoothly with their subjugation.
“I got one here!”
“Nice!”
Life-threatening monsters were rare at the entrance to the Magic Forest.
At best, small-fry like gremlins and goblins.
The practical was evaluated based on collecting and submitting byproducts obtained from hunting monsters.
If you were lucky, you might obtain a low-grade mana stone; more commonly, you had to make do with leather and other byproducts.
“Ugh….”
Binaeril was in charge of processing the hunted monsters. It was knowledge he had picked up from books in his junior years.
“Smoother than I thought.”
“Right? Is it because we’ve grown stronger already?”
Rike had also shown some improvement over the past week.
She had received a lot of help from Binaeril.
Unable to properly wield offensive magic by nature, she had absorbed Binaeril’s forte, ice-attribute magic, like a sponge.
Rike was pleased that learning from a friend at her level yielded faster growth than learning in class.
“There’s another one over there!”
Finding monsters with her Mystic Eye ability had naturally become her role.
‘Good grief, I’m like a servant following a noble on a hunt.’
Binaeril simply trotted after her, only needing to handle the processing of the monsters she hunted.
The enemies were more pathetic than expected, so he rarely had a chance to step in.
“I wish Silvia could have come with us too.”
“Is one attendant not enough for you?”
“Not at all~”
Binaeril teased her with an exaggerated act of deference.
Whenever he made such jokes, Rike would get a nervous expression, wondering if he had figured out her true identity.
In short, she was fun to tease.
As a result of the lottery, Silvia ended up in a group with that Gaspelt fellow.
Gaspelt Louis. He had previously been an object of jealousy, but after awakening to magic, Binaeril felt nothing in particular toward him.
“Silvia is probably doing well too. Want to compare who catches more when it’s over? You don’t want to lose to her, do you?”
“That’s right. I should take this opportunity to show that I’m not someone who needs protection.”
With a little encouragement, her motivation quickly flared back up.
Rike rolled up her sleeves and scanned the depths of the forest.
Silvia might be a mere commoner, but Princess Rike wasn’t easy to deal with either.
Her strength and weakness were one and the same—her straightforwardness.
“Why are there only these small fries? Isn’t there anything stronger?”
“What are you saying? Then go find one yourself. And didn’t you hear what the supervisor said earlier? It’s dangerous if we go too far.”
“At this rate we can’t get first place.”
“Look at you, are you annoyed at me right now?”
The situation for Silvia and Gaspelt’s team was not going as smoothly as expected.
The two clashed at every turn.
Gaspelt kept trying to go deeper into the forest, while Silvia used both carrot and stick to stop him.
“Cowards, step aside! I’ll go deeper even if I have to go alone.”
“Ha, hilarious. Separating from your teammate is a penalty too. Do you think I’m sticking with you because I like it?”
The elixir that Professor Freud had handed over was still in Gaspelt’s pocket.
Time passed mercilessly, and at this rate, the practical would end without them properly encountering any monsters.
They couldn’t just waste time like this. It was do or die. Gaspelt, biting his lip, thought of a scheme.
“What are you doing?”
He opened the elixir bottle and swallowed the pill inside in one gulp.
If they couldn’t go to the monsters, there was no choice but to call the monsters to them.
Monsters targeted living things. To be precise, living mana was their food.
The Magic Forest was a place with an especially high concentration of mana, which was why it had become a monster habitat.
If someone artificially released a strong surge of mana in the middle of this forest?
Those that caught the scent would surely swarm here. That was Gaspelt’s plan.
“Hey! What are you doing!”
Unfortunately, Silvia didn’t possess senses as sharp as Rike’s. To her eyes, Gaspelt suddenly spreading his arms wide looked like he had lost his mind.
“A pose asking to be eaten? Like they’d come just because you do that? We’re in the woods—they probably can’t even see you.”
Gaspelt ignored her and scattered his mana into the air.
After a brief moment, sounds of rustling came from the inner bushes.
It was the sound of something massive approaching. Silvia held her breath and hissed in a small voice.
“Hey! Something’s coming! Shouldn’t we run? Get over here!”
Gaspelt let her words go in one ear and out the other. He smiled in satisfaction.
Now, this was his stage. Come out, whatever you are. Become prey for Lord Gaspelt Louis!
Rike and Binaeril’s eyes met at the same time.
Though not on Rike’s level, Binaeril also possessed excellent perception.
A thick concentration of mana was felt from across the forest.
It felt artificial, like magic spilling from a broken bottle filled with mana.
If it left this strong an impression on Binaeril, Rike would be able to grasp the situation even more accurately.
“Something is approaching from that direction.”
As Binaeril thought. But there were still few clues as to what it could be.
An accident? Was one of the supervising professors doing something? Should they just ignore it and continue the practical?
“Binaeril.”
Rike, who had been concentrating, suddenly called his name.
“It’s the direction where Silvia is.”
“…Let’s go.”
Rike nodded with an anxious gaze.
The closer they got to the source of the mana, the darker Rike’s expression became.
Even if they possessed the same mana, there was a clear difference between that of a mage and that of a monster.
Whoever was releasing mana over there, it was a human.
But what was approaching that human was not a mage. That was a monster’s mana.
And it was a monster of a completely different class from the small fry they had hunted until now.
And at the intersection of the two mana signatures, Silvia was there.
“We have to go faster.”
Rike’s voice was filled with anxiety. Binaeril could no longer feel any muscle pain.
“Get on my back. I’ll run.”
The training of the past week had not been for nothing.
“Hup…!”
Silvia reflexively covered her mouth. She instinctively knew that she must not draw the creature’s attention.
“Grrrrrr.”
She lacked extensive knowledge of monsters, but she could still recognize this one.
An overwhelming build, cold eyes regarding its prey, four legs planted firmly on the ground.
Silvia dredged the monster’s name from her memory.
“Dire Wolf….”
The wolf monster calmly kept Silvia and Gaspelt in its sight and observed them slowly.
It even appeared relaxed. The composure of a predator that could catch its prey whenever it tried to run.
Gaspelt had flinched for a moment, but soon burst into laughter.
Silvia was certain the guy was insane.
“Haha, you’ve finally come! Now, won’t you kindly hand over your mana stone!”
‘Please just shut up!’
It wasn’t as if the monster had been asked, and his attitude was far too brazen.
“O lightning of the heavens, heed my call.”
Gaspelt began chanting magic out of nowhere. Silvia couldn’t understand what nerve he had to provoke a monster like this.
The Dire Wolf did not charge immediately. It tilted its head and waited for Gaspelt’s chanting.
Was it an attitude of “Go ahead and try”?
“…Deliver divine punishment upon my enemy!”
Gaspelt chanted a Tier 3 lightning strike spell. Silvia doubted whether Gaspelt actually possessed that level of skill, but she was willing to forgive if the results were good.
But then.
Crackle.
The thunder Gaspelt had chanted struck the Dire Wolf’s body accurately.
Considering that lightning magic was difficult to control, it was decent skill.
“Grr?”
“…Huh?”
If only the power had matched the chanting.
The spell Gaspelt cast was of such pitiful force that it could hardly be called lightning—almost like static electricity. It was obvious at a glance that his mana couldn’t keep up with the spell.
Silvia observed the Dire Wolf’s reaction.
If she had been able to read a monster’s expression, she would have realized that the look on the wolf’s face was one of absurdity.
“GRAAH!”
The Dire Wolf howled ferociously.
The ticklish attack had only served to stoke the creature’s temper.
Baring its fangs, it crept closer to the two.
“I’m… out of mana….”
Gaspelt muttered in a hollow voice. Silvia, standing nearby, heard him clearly.
“You crazy bastard….”
Silvia cursed her luck at being paired with such a guy.
Though it was her first time meeting him today, her evaluation of Gaspelt Louis had plummeted to the worst possible level.