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Chapter 13

“The young lady has shown interest in the honor student of Borsippa?” Robert was surprised at the news brought by one of his disciples.

“Yes. Please take a look.”

Seitz, the fierce-looking young man who confronted Se-Hoon at the bus stop, showed a photo to Robert. In the photo, Erika and Se-Hoon were looking at each other. There was nothing particularly weird about it, but Robert showed a troubled expression.

“No wonder she signed up for the class out of the blue... now I see why.”

The Barrier Composition class had always been a relatively well-known course in the Department of Spells, but there had never been a time when they needed to filter out incoming students through tests. This year, however, the number of applicants increased threefold compared to the previous year. It was mainly because many had applied for the class after hearing the rumor that Erika had applied for it too.

Since there’s also the young master’s request, I should try to separate those two.

After pondering over a way to break them apart, he quickly came up with a suitable plan.

“We’ll be using the Labyrinth of Illusions for tomorrow’s test.”

Saitz was surprised at Robert’s decision. Although the Labyrinth of Illusions was just a basic barrier spell that could twist one’s senses, it should by no means be underestimated. The spell patterns were well hidden, and that made them difficult to detect for those not well-versed in barriers or not naturally talented in the field.

“Isn’t that going a bit overboard?”

“With so many applicants for the class, a bit of excessive filtering won’t be criticized. Besides, there’s no point in taking the class if they can’t even pass this.”

“I understand.”

Hearing Seitz’s response, he looked at Se-Hoon inside the picture.

I’m not sure if this guy can pass the test.

Although Se-Hoon possessed the talent of an honor student, it wasn’t guaranteed that he was proficient in barrier spells as well. After a moment of contemplation, Robert quickly reached a conclusion.

That wouldn’t be so bad either.

Either he could make Erika lose interest in Se-Hoon, or both Erika and Se-Hoon would drop out of the class. Regardless of what occurred, the test would still prevent students who were neither good nor bad at barrier spells from taking the class.

Robert had no expectations for Se-Hoon to make it through the test, so he wasn\'t worried about it.

***

“Y-you have passed the test.”

Se-Hoon looked surprised at the unexpected result.

“A test?” He looked around in disbelief.

As Robert realized that Se-Hoon seemed to have no clue about the test he just passed, his expression hardened.

Was there a problem with the Labyrinth of Illusions? No, there shouldn’t be.

If there was a problem with the barrier, the caster himself could not be unaware of it. Realizing that it was impossible that the barrier was the issue, Robert’s glance fell upon Erika, who had entered the courtyard with Se-Hoon.

Did she help him through?

Although it would be possible for someone like her, who was born with innate talent in magic, to help Se-Hoon traverse through the barrier spell, Robert would have noticed that she was assisting Se-Hoon, as he had been watching the entire time.

After considering various possibilities, he soon realized that there was only one possible explanation.

Lee Se-Hoon breached through the Labyrinth of Illusions with his abilities alone.

Moreover, he had neither used the conventional method that used spells to counteract the illusions nor the method of accumulating mana to resist them. He had arrived at this open space solely by breaking through the effects of the Labyrinth of Illusions with his instinctive intuitions alone.

How should I even describe this...

He wasn’t sure whether Se-Hoon was talented in spells or not, but at least in terms of intuition, he was fitting of the title of an honor student.

After the initial confusion, Robert soon collected himself and looked at the group of students who managed to break through the test.

“We will now begin the second filtering of applicants. Please step forth in order.”

At his call, a student glanced at Erika and strode confidently forward.

“I would like to go first.”

“Good. The second test is simple.”

As Robert lightly waved his left hand, a trail of red mana flowed along the ground, following the trajectory of his fingertips, and then seeped into the ground. In the blink of an eye, a spell had been drawn.

A web-like, red-colored barrier appeared between Robert and the student. The student observed it nervously while Robert proceeded with his explanation.

“Destroy this barrier using only your mana. I will score you guys based on the time taken, so make sure you are quick and accurate. You may start now.”

Upon the announcement of the start of the test, the student promptly laid both hands on the barrier and infused his mana into it. He was trying to find and dismantle the core that was maintaining the barrier. The process itself was simple, but the target barrier was too complex.

“Argh...”

Robert’s barrier had an effect resembling a spider web. When mana was infused into the spell, the core would swiftly relocate, just like a spider that scurried away after sensing vibrations in its web.

Consequently, destroying this barrier would require the encompassing of the entire spell pattern and then gradually surrounding the core. However, this method would be both mana-intensive and physically taxing.

Crack!

“Huff... huff.”

Unlike the enthusiastic start, the student only destroyed the barrier after struggling considerably. After examining the whole process, Robert commented calmly, “Two minutes and thirty-three seconds. You focused more on figuring out the structure. Not bad.”

“Thank you.”

His evaluation wasn’t lacking, but that was about it. Seeing that Erika had not even given him a glance, the student shrugged his shoulders and stepped aside. The following tests unfolded in a similar fashion, with some students even failing to destroy the barrier.

“You all will start in the beginner class.”

Since they managed to pass through the Labyrinth of Illusions and came all the way here, it was unlikely that they would be dropped from the course. However, given their lack of knowledge, assigning them to the foundational class was a natural course of action. The students, who were eager to show off their abilities, now stood like defeated soldiers. With their gazes upon her, Erika finally stepped forth.

“You may get started.”

At Robert’s word, she touched the barrier\'s center with her hand and promptly retracted it. A ripple of silvery mana spread subtly throughout the red barrier, with the undulation slowly reaching the edges.

Then, the barrier started crumbling from the outer edges. Instead of locating and destroying the core of the barrier, she chose to dismantle the entire spell, causing the barrier to collapse.

Witnessing the scene unfold, the students were left astonished. Typically, such a method was considered cumbersome and inefficient. It was typically used either by those who lacked foundational knowledge and blindly forced the method, or by those who needed a quick method to destroy the barrier.

“No... What...?”

“How did she do it so quickly?”

With just a single gesture and a minimal amount of magic, Erika was able to effortlessly execute that method. This meant that, for her, destroying a barrier of this level—whether by locating the core or dismantling the entire spell—was so straightforward that it didn’t matter which method she decided to use.

“Twenty-two seconds. That was fine, but if you used the conventional method, it would have been about two seconds faster. Please choose your method more carefully next time.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

They talked back and forth, seeming unfazed. Seeing this, the students from the other departments realized once again who the person they wanted to impress was.

So that’s what you need to be an honor student.

She is way out of my league in terms of skills.

While everyone was admiring her, Erika stepped aside, and Se-Hoon plodded to the front.

“Thank you for your attention.”

There was not a single hint of tension in him whatsoever. The students, who had looked down on Se-Hoon because he was from the Department of Blacksmithing, now observed him slightly nervously.

Given Erika’s outstanding performance as an honor student, they were expecting him to also display a certain level of remarkability. Robert, who was standing in front of him, also felt a sense of anticipation.

He doesn’t look that special...

To Robert, Se-Hoon was just a young man with aggressive-looking eyes and bad manners. The only unusual thing he found about him was that his eyes held a sense of maturity that was hard to find in people of his age, but that was not enough to make him special.

I’ll just have to find out from now on.

Postponing his judgment on Se-Hoon, Robert swung his hand toward the ground and created another barrier.

“Hm...”

While other students anxiously prepared for the test while the barrier was slowly taking shape, Se-Hoon intently examined the process of the formation of the barrier. He focused especially more on the traces being engraved on the ground as the barrier was formed.

Robert looked at him with a puzzled expression.

“Is there a problem?”

“Nope. It’s nothing.”

Even when he was responding, Se-Hoon didn’t take his eyes off the floor.

Despite being irritated by his somewhat insolent demeanor, Robert, with a furrowed brow, calmly continued speaking, “I see. Well then, you may start.”

Beep!

Seitz, who was the assistant for this test, pressed the timer. Only now did Se-Hoon slowly raise his head to view the barrier.

“...”

However, all he did was stare at it. He didn’t make any contact with the barrier or infuse his mana into it. He didn’t show any other behavior indicating an attempt to destroy the barrier either.

The students around him were puzzled by his behavior.

“What is he doing?”

“Does he not know that the timer has started?”

In the midst of the confusion caused by his unexpected actions, Se-Hoon immersed himself in his own world and focused his attention on the barrier in front of him.

This barrier’s motif is based on spiders and their webs. It’s easily deployable in various environments and is resilient as well, being able to regenerate unless the core is shattered.

Although it lacked uniqueness, it proved to be stable for defensive purposes. The craftsmanship displayed by Robert was exceptional, and what especially caught Se-Hoon’s attention was the intricate structure of the spell.

Even though he expended a large quantity of mana, I can’t find a single trace.

No matter how exceptional his control of mana was, repeatedly deploying a barrier in the same spot was bound to leave an imprint on the ground due to each barrier’s aftereffects. However, Robert had deployed his barrier spell so delicately that not even a single blade of grass on the floor was crumpled.

Now I see that it has a structure specialized in assimilating with the surrounding environment...

As he studied the characteristics of the barrier, a material suddenly came to mind: inkstone ore.

It was ore that could effortlessly devour everything—from the flames of a furnace to the striking of a hammer, and even the infused mana. The difficulty in using it as a forging material was due to this extraordinary characteristic.

So, to prevent it from simply absorbing all of the work I put in, I should hit it with two different things simultaneously.

While heating the ore, he would have to hammer it. Likewise, while hammering the ore, he would have to heat it so that it wouldn’t be able to devour all of the impact from the hammer.

Also, it wasn’t just a straightforward process; he had to carefully maintain a slight difference in the input of energy between the two, holding them at approximately fifty-one percent and forty-nine percent. Otherwise, the ore would absorb some of the accumulated energy, and the balance during the forging process would be thrown off.

“What in the world is he doing?” blurted Robert.

There were two essential factors that Se-Hoon needed to keep in mind for the forging process of inkstone ore. The first was an acute sense that doesn’t even tolerate a one percent margin of error, and the second was the stamina to withstand a forging procedure that would take several times longer than conventional forging methods.

Realizing this, Se-Hoon suddenly had one question in mind: What if he could somehow take hold of the energy accumulated in the inkstone ore without having it dissipate?

“Are you even listening to me―”

Right as Robert was about to warn Se-Hoon, Erika stopped him.

“Let him be.”

“Um...”

The moment he saw a glimpse of a possibility, a schematic for a bracelet was spontaneously drawn in Se-Hoon’s mind. It included precise details of its appearance, structure, and embedded magic circuit.

Now that he had completed the overall design, all that remained was proof of its feasibility.

Having come back only now from his own world, Se-Hoon gazed once again at the barrier before him.

The structure... I think I have a rough idea about it.

Before the regression, he had been accumulating a myriad of random pieces of knowledge without ever knowing their contexts. Adding the barrier spell Erika had briefly shown him yesterday to that, he was able to figure out a way to destroy the barrier in his mind.

He immediately gathered his mana into his right hand.

Fwoosh.

And then he lightly tapped the center of the barrier with his right hand, which was enveloped in Scarlet Flame.

Fwooosh!

The flames from his hand began to spread across the entire barrier, quickly dismantling it. The sight left everyone stunned and at a loss for words.

An awkward silence filled the air.

“...It worked.”

Se-Hoon clenched his fists, his eyes gleaming with determination.

“This will work!!!”

He swiftly turned and dashed out of the forest, shouting as if he had successfully pulled out an aching tooth. Everyone stared in bewilderment at his departing figure, and it was only a few moments later that Seitz regained his senses and switched off the timer.

Beep!

“Seven minutes and forty-five seconds...”

Se-Hoon’s time was the longest among the students who had managed to destroy the barrier. However, everyone knew that the time he spent held little significance. What Se-Hoon had just accomplished was not just destroying the barrier; he had created an effective dispelling technique specifically designed to destroy this kind of barrier.

“The time it took for him to create a dispelling technique for a spell he hasn’t seen before was a mere seven minutes and forty-five seconds...”

Although it took Se-Hoon seven minutes and forty-five seconds to destroy the barrier this time, if he faced the same kind of barrier again, he would be able to destroy it in less than ten seconds.

“...”

Upon realizing this, Robert’s expression became stern as he fell into deep thought.

“...”

Similarly, Erika, too, was staring intently at Se-Hoon’s retreating figure with a serious expression.