Magicapita

Chapter 179: Limited Knowledge


The other six contestants that Cæ had to fight proved to be quite formidable as well. Focusing too much on Virlyd alone had also made Cæ forget that they were also a problem, and while they inspire the same sense of invincibility that Virlyd did, Cæ realized that they, too, were profoundly powerful in their own right.

In particular, each of them was a highly proficient and highly talented student with years of magic at their disposal.

Mira Mierta.

A commoner student who was handicapped before she entered the Elendir Institute of Magic at the age of sixteen. She entered an experimental magic prosthetic program that allowed her to don a magical prosthetic that also functioned as a mana-conductor and restored her a functional arm.

The arm became the foundation of her martial magic and her body casting. Her magic casting speed was known to be the very fastest in the entirety of the Elendir Institute of Magic, so much so that she had defeated each and every single mage in her block through the use of her body-casting at the very start of the match.

The Elendir Institute of Magic and the Ministry of Magical Affairs, which oversaw the Magic Contest, permitted certain atypical artifacts and enchanted items in combat under certain circumstances, and medical necessity was one of them, allowing her to be a viable candidate in the match.

Cæ studied her profile picture with a strange expression.

Despite being twenty-one years of age, she looked like she was sixteen and was short enough that he could walk into her without her noticing.

Yet, her eyes were fierce and full of fight.

Cæ could instinctively tell that she would be a challenge to deal with.

"Speed magic… interesting," Cæ murmured.

Speed magic was exactly as the name suggested it was; it used magic to increase speed, generally in combat. At the same time, the average mage has learned to use the fundamental form of manipulation themselves to shift across a surface or in the air at high speeds.

But there were limits, of course.

The biggest limit was one's own reaction speed and reflexes.

If one sped oneself too fast without improving their reaction speed and reflexes, they were liable to crash into an obstacle or an impediment before they could even react. The outcome would undoubtedly be death.

That was why mages were mindful not to speed themselves up in motion too much; it was simply too risky, and too many mages had passed away doing so.

The solution, however, was a formalized field of speed magic that relied on the life element and the fundamental form of change to alter one's reaction speed and reflexes and allow them to cast magic faster.

Mira had specialized in that magic, and it allowed her to not just move faster but also cast magic faster, although her mana-motive force was not altered by it at all, making her magic even weaker due to the smaller and smaller activation periods.

Cæ didn't dare underestimate her just because of that one shortcoming, however.

He knew how powerful a quick activation speed was in battle thanks to his own experiences using it against the apprentice mages of the slums.

"It doesn't matter how weak the magic is if it hits," Cæ remarked with a grim expression. "Even a weak spell will be enough if it can hit a defenseless mage whose magic is one beat slower to respond."

That was the source of her strength as one of the seven strongest candidates of the Elendir Institute of Magic.

"She's going to be extremely challenging."

The only relief he had was that her speed magic was not absurdly powerful. It wasn't as though she could enhance her processing to the point that everybody else appeared to be in slow motion. After all, that would make her virtually unstoppable in combat, and the value of that would be too high.

The high value of it would constrain her and radically increase the cost of such a magic spell. After all, Merlin's Law of Conservation of Value stated that the amount of mana consumed by a spell was directly proportional to its value.

Cæ could only be grateful that because mana was functionally the energy of value, it wasn't easy to cast extremely overpowered spells with overwhelming outcomes without a corresponding consumption of mana.

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"How do you plan to deal with her?" Serulia raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I highly doubt that she's going to target me right off the bat," Cæ replied with a thoughtful tone. "There will be a brief moment at the very start of the battle where she will be the strongest because her magic will activate the soonest, and none of the others will have any magic up at first. There is no way she will waste that opportunity on me. She will likely reserve that for Virlyd.

"That does make sense," Serulia nodded as she leaned over to read through the documents in Cæ's hands. "Virlyd is perhaps the only one she likely does not have the confidence to defeat one-on-one without relying on these kinds of tricks."

Cæ nodded. "As for dealing with her, this is not an opponent that I can fight head-on because tracking her and landing an attack on her will be extremely difficult. I will have to rely on wide-scale attacks to take her out. On top of that…"

He put the document down as he gazed at the others that Serulia had placed on the table with a grim expression.

"I can't focus on one opponent after another, either. All seven of us are going to be in the combat arena one after another. And most likely, all of us will focus on Virlyd."

Of course, they knew that even if they fought Virlyd together in a six-on-one battle and won that way, it wouldn't truly disqualify him because the Student Council would take into account that he was facing the six strongest students in the Elendir Institute of Magic after himself.

"But they will likely focus on Virlyd anyway, so that he will be able to shine better after he is kicked out of the combat arena," Cæ analyzed with a calm expression. "All for the sake of being among the final tentative candidates that may go on to become the finalized candidate."

It was simply easier to show their strength off with Virlyd out of the game.

The two of them quickly went over the four remaining profiles, allowing him to get a good understanding of the other contestants and what they were capable of.

[Dranst]

A mage who specialized in combat magic, but fought using grimoires. Grimoires were books with eidos encoded into them so that one would not need to waste any time casting a magic circle midair through imagination.

The grimoire also functioned as a mana conductor, allowing him to cast magic without an additional mana conductor, like a wand.

This allowed him to cast complex spells in the blink of an eye.

"His magic mastery amounts to long-range offensive. He specializes in automation and conjuration magic, and his mana-motive force is second only to Virlyd," Cæ murmured. "He's going to be a menace to deal with in combat. And he's from an affluent background."

Which meant that he had the resources to get information on his opponents, including Cæ.

[Miranda Walyn]

She was a slightly older student, also with an affluent background, with a specialization in spirit magic.

Cæ's eyes widened at those words. "Spirit magic…? What the hell is that?"

"You do not know?" Serulia frowned at him with a bewildered expression. "Where have you lived your entire life?"

"In the slums," Cæ reminded her.

"Ah, pardon me for the rudeness," she coughed, turning back to her profile. "Spirit magic is a very rare field of magic that is an advanced application of contract magic."

"Contract magic…" Cæ murmured. "Ah, right. I'm pretty sure that is an advanced form of magic as well. I see, I haven't heard of it since I'm still in my first year of the Senior Program."

"You are still merely scratching the surface of magic," Serulia informed him. "I told you before, your exposure to magic is still very low compared to your competitors."

"I am aware," Cæ's attention returned to the document before him as he continued studying her profile. "So what is spirit magic?"

"Spirit magic is a branch of magic where you form a contract with elemental spirits," she explained. "You supply them with magical power and they fight for you."

"Elemental spirits…" his eyes lit up with amazement.

"Indeed," she nodded. "These are supernatural entities made of magical energy that exist in our world, in a much broader class of magical entities."

Cæ nodded. "I did touch up on magical entities in the Apprentice Program. But they never went deeper into the topic or got into specifics."

"The Apprentice Program is merely a foundation course in the Elendir Institute of Magic, after all. Since students pass through it very quickly compared to other magic magicademies with a lower pass-through rate," she explained. "But all manner of magical entities exist in this world, you know? Although they are very uncommon. Magical entities of all kinds… including gods, you know?"

The air grew heavy with her words.

"…Gods, hm?"

Cæ's tone grew thoughtful. "The first recorded usage of magic came more than six thousand years ago, if I remember correctly. And it recorded Queen Sirraria quelling an apocalyptic storm conjured by some god. It was, if I'm not wrong… Arroj, an ancient god of calamities."

She nodded. "The Archen Theocracy that exists in West Gruonia, they worship gods. And they gain power from the gods. You can find videos of their rituals on the maginet, although it's hard to discern anything remotely, of course."

Cæ's eyes lit up with a faint hint of interest.

This conversation felt surreal.

It showed him how little he knew about the world in depth.

His education was, for the most part, extremely poor early on, and he had to work very hard just to do just above average in education, even after he initially left the slums. His business background was good, but it didn't give him what he was missing.

"Now that I think of it…" A realization washed over him. "I have never left this city in my entire life."

Serulia's eyes widened with shock.

"What?!" she stared at him with an aghast expression. "You have never left this city?!"

Cæ nodded. "Most of my life was in the slums, where I was isolated from the rest of the world. There are no gods or elemental spirits in the slums, so even the concepts of such beings didn't exist in my mind."

"What about after you left the slums?" she raised an eyebrow. "Surely you left the city for a vacation, or getaway, or to tour your country or continent? I cannot live without going on a big vacation at least once a year."

Cæ stared at her before shaking his head.

"Let's get back to focusing on important matters."

The realization still lingered in the back of his mind, however, even as he studied the profiles of the remaining contenders.

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